In Norway, fire extinguishers have entered the circular economy

It is as good as new, points out Petter Mathisen, brandishing a fire extinguisher that has got new life at “Slåkkefabrikken” at Miljø Norge in Lier near Oslo. 

That extinguisher you have had at home for many years which perhaps needs changing does in fact not have to be thrown out. It can be reused. Not just parts from it either, the entire fire extinguisher is reusable. 

Some work still needs to be done manually. The plan is for the production line to be fully automated.

“Slåkkefabrikken” – or the extinguisher factory – accepts fire extinguishers from the whole of Norway and some from Sweden. Here they are emptied and dismantled, inspected and cleaned before being readied to serve again, and the extinguishers – renamed “Slåkke” – are wrapped up and sent out to shops.

The production line at “Slåkkefabrikken” is the first of its kind. Petter Mathisen actually drew the first draft. Most of the job is automatic and just a few tasks are performed by hand.

The production line cost 70 million Norwegian kroner (€6m). The project got millions in support from Innovation Norway while the biggest investment came from the owners of Miljø Norge – the company Mathisen and his brother set up in 2021, to develop ways of improving the circular economy.

An environmentally friendly fire extinguisher 

But does the reused fire extinguisher work as well as a new one which (mainly) is produced in China and shipped to Norway?

“Absolutely! It is as effective and has the same extinguishing power, approximately the same price and is far better for the environment,” says Mathisen.

Petter Mathisen believes in highlighting what we save the environment from when we reuse fire extinguishers.

And let us look at the figures right away: Reusing a fire extinguisher saves 38 kilos of CO2 and four kilos of virgin steel.

But, you might think, that is not very much? Well, there are between 8 and 10 million fire extinguishers in Norway alone. Every year, around one million of these must be changed. Not all can be reused. But let us say around half can, and then imagine the amount of CO2 that is not emitted into the atmosphere. 

Started in granny's basement

The story of Miljø Norge and «Slåkke» actually started more than 20 years ago, in the basement of Petter and his brother Geir’s grandmother. This is where the brothers established their first company, Norsk Brannvern, or Norwegian Fire Protection.

In the workshop, that is granny’s basement, the boys were busy filling fire extinguishers before going door to door in Drammen and Lier to sell the product. 

After a while, fire extinguishers were bought from China and sold in Norway. The company grew, both in terms of the number of employees and sales. 

Fire extinguishers come in different shapes and colours. 

The Mathisen brothers sold Norsk Brannvern to a Swedish company. They were left with a good sum of money. 

Most extinguishers were thrown away

During their years working with fire protection, they noticed an enormous number of fire extinguishers were being discarded. They had to be reusable, the brothers thought and set about creating a new startup – Miljø Norge and Slåkke – in 2021. Now there are 22 employees.

Most fire extinguishers have so far simply been thrown away.

"What usually happens then is that the powder ends up in a landfill (stored in a large pile), the plastic is burned and the steel is chopped up and used in products like reinforcement bars," explains Mathisen.

Reuse has so far not been profitable.

"It costs money for fire safety companies and businesses to hand in old pressurised extinguishers. That's why many empty their devices before handing them in so that they get money for the steel. A rubbish solution for the environment, but money talks," he says.

The Slåkkefabrikken production line has made reuse profitable.

"You also get far higher quality by refilling devices automatically on a production line compared to doing it manually. We are now approved by the county governor to work with hazardous waste, we are ISO-certified and have good quality routines.

"With one fire extinguisher leaving our production line every 50 seconds, the circular economy becomes a good economy. Scaling is key in the circular economy," says Mathisen.

Some devices cannot be reused because of rust and damage. 

"Then we have to ensure that the powder, plastic and rubber is used for something else. We have plans to do this, and doing it large-scale it will also become profitable to create new products from these raw materials," says Mathisen.

Need a lot of used extinguishers

The fire extinguisher "Slåkke" and Miljø Norge have been well-received in the market. They have entered into close cooperation with Norway’s large recycling companies, like Stena, RagnSells, Franzefoss and Norsk Gjenvinning, which are now all partners.

Miljø Norge has become a kind of national centre for receiving fire extinguishers. Which is good, because they are dependent on big volumes.

Fire extinguishers are emptied and refilled automatically. 

“To make circular economy profitable you need volume. And to achieve that you need cooperation in the sector,” says Petter Mathisen. 

Ready for the world

They have been compared with Tomra, the company behind Norway’s bottle recycling scheme. Mathiesen thinks that is kind of OK. You have to be allowed to think big, he believes.

“There are fire extinguishers all around the world. We can set up shop wherever and more or less whenever. There are big international opportunities,” he says.

Here, an old fire extinguisher begins its journey towards being given a new lease of life. Josef Adhanom works on the production line.

Miljø Norge can make a production line for all types of fire extinguishers, whether they are from Norway or for instance a different European country.

So far, Miljø Norge has operations in Sweden in addition to Norway. Mathisen is a bit impatient to get going.

“We have been welcomed in Sweden but it takes some time to get running properly,” he says. Mathisen argues that players in the market must seek collaborations, whether this is internally in Norway or across borders.

“I am convinced that we have to work together in the Nordics on circular economy. The Nordic countries represent a small market with just a few million people. On our own, we don’t get the volume of waste that makes it profitable. Everyone cannot do everything. We have to cooperate,” he says.

Bottom of the pile

One of the most important ways of reaching the climate goals is the change to a circular economy. We must use and throw away far less than today. But for now, we are pretty poor at this in the Nordics. 

According to The Circularity Gap Report, Norway is one of the least circular countries in Europe. Norway also has one of the world’s highest levels of consumption. Norwegian's consumption of natural resources (including everything needed for the production of the stuff we buy) is estimated to be 44.3 tonnes per person annually.

In Norway, just 2.4 per cent of resources are returned to the circular economy, while countries like the Netherlands are at 24.5 per cent and aim to reach 50 per cent by 2030.

Things are not much better in Sweden and Denmark, where the figures are 3.4 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. The global average is 8.6 per cent.

The waste cannot continue

In 2024, the Norwegian government presented an action plan for the circular economy. It follows up on the national strategy for the circular economy from 2021.

To help us understand what the circular economy is all about, many diagrams and drawings have been created to explain it. This one is taken from the Norwegian government's strategy and action plan, which in turn was inspired by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation.

“We live in a society that throws away resources we cannot afford to waste. In the past 50 years, the world’s resource use has more than tripled. We have to turn this trend, we must stop use and discard. 

“The action plan shows that the government is willing to use a broad set of measures to set the economy on the right path,” said Norway’s Minister of Climate and the Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen when he presented the action plan.

The government also established an expert group to examine measures aimed at reducing the use of resources and promoting a more circular economy. The expert group will present their report in the spring of 2025.

More startups?

At Miljø Norge they have already been planning their next circular product for a while. “Slåkke” will not be their only product by any means. 

With the motto "We save lives and the environment," Petter Mathisen and Miljø Norge want to conquer more of the Nordic market and hopefully elsewhere in the world too.

“Our aim is to give new life to a range of products that are currently being treated as waste,” says Petter Mathisen. They do not talk about things as waste but as raw materials and residual resources.

“Many things can be reused. We just have to look at the possibilities. Generations before us were better at doing this. We have been terribly bad. Now we must use and discard less and reuse more,” argues Mathisen.