If recovery is left to the excluded, it has always been also a mode of social and economic integration.

The marginalized people who practiced it often settled down and we can see that it led some to create flourishing businesses (Barec group, Cablofer, Jaeger & Bosshard, etc.)

Anyone who enters the mode of recovery cannot help but be struck by finding Birchlers and Baders in all four corners of French-speaking Switzerland.

"Nowadays, we can no longer afford to throw away or burn materials that can be recovered through simple sorting."

Michel Bader and his son Michaël put this observation into practice in their company, which has been established in the Lucens industrial zone since 1990. Very quickly, the small building and its surroundings were overwhelmed by the volume of recovered materials, and it was necessary to expand.

Recently, a 3,300 m2 hall with a height of 16 metres was built and a 28,000 m2 square was developed.

"Despite sustained demand in recent years, the market for scrap metal remains capricious. After a period in which China monopolized almost half of the world's capacity, we have been experiencing a calmer period since the end of 2004. Turkey is still very present on the supply market, but as far as our company is concerned, we sell the bulk of our production to the Swiss steelworks of Gerlafingen and Von Moos, in the canton of Lucerne."

Michel Bader, head of the Lucerne company that bears his name, knows what he is talking about.

It is a 21-metre long and 10-metre high monster, shaped like a grey locomotive, which has taken up residence on the vast work area of the Bader & Fils company in Lucens. It is 220 tonnes of machinery capable of compressing three cars at a time or compacting and shearing scrap metal to the dimensions desired by customers, i.e. in pieces of 40 x 80 cm. Another objective dictated Mr. Bader's choice, that of reducing volumes, by making the best use of transport capacities.

The new press was built in Charleroi, Belgium, and was transported in two special convoys by the Friderici company, as well as three other normal convoys.

Newly developed 19,000 m2 square, new covered hall of 1,200 m2, new 900 hp crusher, weighing 57 tonnes, Michel Bader is increasing investments to guarantee the sustainability of the family business.

Having arrived in Lucens in 1977, he has continued to adapt to the requirements of increasingly stringent legislation in terms of waste recovery, sorting and recycling. "It's that or disappear," says the entrepreneur who employs around ten people.

On a 48,000 m2 site, which makes it one of the largest of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland, the Bader company stores waste from around a hundred municipalities in Vaud and Fribourg.