The company was located on the premises of the former Bromberg Dynamit Nobel AG Factory (1939–1945), built by the Third Reich, which manufactured explosives and handloading ammunition for the needs of the Wehrmacht.

A specific housing estate had been built in 1940–1944, for the German management staff of the AG Factory, who had to quickly reach the plant in case of breakdown.

[6] As a legacy of the DAG Fabrik Bromberg plant, Zachem possessed 475 buildings operating several production lines for nitroglycerin ("NGL-Betrieb"), nitrocellulose ("NC-Betrieb"), gunpowder ("POL-Betrieb"), high explosives ("TRI/DI -B Betrieb"), handloading ammunition ("FÜLSTELLE") and sulfuric acid ("LURGI-Betrieb").

[7] Various attempts to convert the German production lines between 1956 and 1980 were performed, with only partial success: the plant producing explosives was reused, but not those manufacturing nitroglycerin or gunpowder.

Some of the old buildings were crushed with explosives in the 1970s, to make room for a new department of plastics production: the rubble was moved into the swampy bed of the mouth of the Brda river to the Vistula.

The qualified workers were to be found among employees of a pre-war gunpowder factory in Pionki[1] and people working in the former DAG Fabrik Bromberg.

[5] As part of the Six-Year Plan (1950–1956), it was decided to build a large housing estate for workers with schools, clinics, a community center and a library, in the Socialist realism style.

[13] In 1950, a dedicated incineration yard was set up, in the Żółwin area, replacing open-sky burning performed on a square at Dąbrowa Street.

The place, a north-sloping dune overgrown with grass, was located in an abandoned village at the intersection with the former road running between Bydgoszcz and Toruń.

The incineration site was located several hundred meters east of the edge of the plants and was accessed by a concrete road (preserved to this day) built for the needs of D.A.G.

The premises also comprised, inter alia, a specific bus transport system, a school, a canteen, a clinic, a community center, a sports club, a stadium, a hall, a cinema, a newspaper, a printing house, workers' hotels, a fire brigade, a pig house and even its own railway station ("Bydgoszcz Żółwin").

[1] The vast wooded area of the factory was strictly secured with a double barbed wire fence and protected by a 100-people strong unit of the Industrial Guard (Polish: Straż Przemysłowa) equipped with carbines and submachine guns.

[21] In the early 1970s, pursuant to the purchase by the Polish Communist authorities of a license to manufacture the Polski Fiat 126p, Zachem was given the British technology for the production of polyurethane foams.

[6] In the second half of the 1970s, efforts were made to develop an entire domestic production, replacing foreign raw materials with local substitutes.

[6] In the 1970s, 90% of Zachem's export was channeled to Western countries (Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, West Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, United States, Japan).

Despite this situation, in 1983, the production of rigid polyurethane foam boards was launched, followed a year later by the manufacturing of dyed metal complex plates.

[16] In 1981, the "Solidarność" union supported the erection of a monument on the factory premises, so as to remember the employees who died in connection with accidents at work in Zachem.

Stacks of industrial waste (sludge, tar, combustion dust, gypsum) were stored:[24] The deterioration of the water quality in the Vistula valley downstream of the plant was officially confirmed as early as 1963, after complaints from the inhabitants of Plątnowo and Łęgnowo districts.

[26] 406 sources of pollutant emissions were identified in Zachem, among which poisonous, paralyzing and toxic compounds such as hydrogen chloride, ammonia, phosgene or freon.

In addition, the threatened area comprised housing estates built in the vicinity of the company in the districts of Kapuściska, Wyżyny, Glinki and "Osiedle Awaryjne".

[30] At the beginning of the 1990s, some of Zachem's installations were particularly noxious for the environment: the production of phenol, nitrobenzene, aniline were stopped, together with some dye manufacturing plants.

[38] On 27 June 2013, the company changed its name to Infrastruktura Kapuściska S.A. (IK) and turned to infrastructure management and media supply to business entities.

[42] On 21 December 2015, the city of Bydgoszcz purchased, for 1.2 million PLN, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) of streets covering a 19 hectares (47 acres) area of the former industrial premises.

[47] The new club offered to practice the following disciplines: boxing, athletics, football, volleyball for women and men, shooting and water sports.

[31] After the Zachem's bankruptcy, two bodies have been performing analyses of the environment surrounding the liquidated plants, Krakow's University of Science and Technology (from 2011 to 2012) and the "Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection" (from 2015).

Other hazardous sources of pollution have been identified: To this day, samples from the ex-Zachem areas have been carrying toxic and carcinogenic substances, such as toluene, nitrobenzene, naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene and fluorene.

[49] Furthermore, the area of the EPI waste landfill is polluted with both inorganic and organic elements of carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic natures (phenols, nitrobenzene, toluidine, nitrotoluene).

According to the Krakow University of Science and Technology, a solution would be to build sarcophagi surrounding the landfill for a cost estimated at 2 billion PLN.

[54] In 2018, a project to clean up the former Zachem site was approved: the scheme should last till 2023 and 93.4 million PLN were allocated for this aim, of which 85% comes from EU funds.

[55] A 2019, study estimated the cost of the de-pollution of the entire site at 2.6 billion PLN (580 million dollar based on DEC 2022 exchange rate).