Alliance of companies and trade associations will invest $120 million to expand recycling plant.
A consortium of Sweden-based trade groups and companies is investing to build what they call the largest and most modern plastic recycling plant in the world.
Known as Site Zero and operated by Swedish Plastic Recycling (Svensk Plaståtervinning), the facility is being built to recycle up to 200,000 metric tons of plastic per year, according to its backers.
Swedish Plastic Recycling is owned by “a large part of the Swedish business community,” according to a press release issued by the consortium. The investors say Site Zero, in Motala, Sweden, will be able to recycle “all plastic packaging from Swedish households and makes plastics circular – completely without any CO2 emissions.”
The investors are not new to plastic recycling, as Motala already hosts a recycling facility they call “the most efficient in Europe, that is now being developed with next-generation technology.”
“We are doubling our capacity and will be able to handle 200,000 metric tons of plastic packaging per year,” says Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Swedish Plastic Recycling. “This creates the conditions needed for receiving and eventually recycle all plastic packaging from Swedish households.”
After the expansion, Site Zero will be 60,000 square meters (645,000 square feet) and employ up to 200 people. The automated equipment array will include 60 near-infrared (NIR) sensors and approximately five kilometers (3.1 miles) of conveyor length.
Swedish Plastic Recycling credits “cutting-edge technology” for its future ability to sort and prepare polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) trays and bottles, PP film, expanded polystyrene (EPS), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), two grades of polyolefin mixes, plus metal and other nonplastic scrap.
“Any small parts of plastic that remain after the sorting process are separated to be sent to chemical recycling, or to become new composite products,” states Swedish Plastic Recycling, adding, “At Site Zero, zero packaging goes to incineration.”
The investors say the plant will be powered by renewable energy, including plans to produce renewable energy by “covering the building’s large flat roof with solar panels.”
The firm says it is investing $120 million in the facility upgrade, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023. “We also are preparing for washing and granulation of the plastic in phase two, which is planned for 2025,” adds Philipsson. “Then our entire plastic flow in Sweden can become circular.”
He continues, “This investment creates the prerequisites needed for making Sweden a world leader in plastic recycling. Being able to do it together with our producer customers and owners, who consist of large parts of the Swedish business community, is very inspiring.”
Investors in Swedish Plastic Recycling include Plastbranschens Informationsråd, Dagligleverantörernas Förbund, Svensk Handel and Svensk Dagligvaruhandel. Co-investors include Svenska Metallkretsen, Pressretur, Returkartong and Svensk Glasåtervinning.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also is contributing $20.8 million in financing through a climate investment aid program.
The electric-powered waste collection trucks are available in Southern California at Velocity Truck Centers.
Los Angeles-based Battle Motors says it is now selling its electric-powered refuse truck, the Battle LNT EV, in Southern California through Velocity Truck Centers.
Battle Motors, which acquired Ohio-based refuse market truck maker Crane Carrier Company (CCC) earlier this year, also will present its Battle LNT EV (electric vehicle) at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, California.
The Battle Motors LNT EV features an 82-inch cab, a customizable wheel base, multimode regenerative braking, a direct drive transmission, peak power of 500 horsepower, continuous power of 310 horsepower, and a peak output torque of 1,700-plus pounds per foot, according to the company.
Battle says it acquired CCC to add an EV offering to CCC’s existing diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) product lines. “CCC’s refuse trucks have been through 75 years of continuous improvement, making them the best refuse truck on the market,” states the company.
“Velocity is excited to work with Battle Motors CCC in the development, sales and service of the new Battle LNT EV LCOE refuse truck,” says Eric Evans, national refuse manager for Velocity. “Velocity is a leader in the refuse segment, and our customers are eager to deploy zero emissions vehicle products as soon as possible.”
Comments Paul Marsolan, chief software officer of Battle Motors, “We wanted to create a fun, cool dynamic user interface in our trucks. We provide all the information on the truck in an easy-to-use interface that drivers are familiar with. If you’ve used a smartphone, you will really enjoy our Revolution operating system.”
He continues, “Drivers will get performance data on the instrument cluster. Service centers and fleet managers are not left out either—parts, down to the specific vehicle identification number, and service history is right at their fingertips. To make it as easy as possible we have included a QR code to easily share the parts data with a phone or desktop.”
Marsolan says the operating system gives the trucks “an onboard computer system to pass actionable performance, parts, and service data to fleet managers, service dealers, and drivers via [the] onboard digital instrument cluster and hosted server environment.”
Battle Motors says it is committed to accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy through manufacturing the most durable and performance-driven class 7 and 8 electric trucks.
Metso introduces its F-Series fine shredders, which include the F140, F210 and F320.
The M&J F-Series fine shredder family includes three products that encompass nearly all industry needs. The all-new fine shredders have set a new standard for the production of alternative fuels, such as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF).
These shredders guarantee at least 90 percent output below 50 millimeters and can match all capacity requirements up to 23 tons per hour. Additionally, the new F-Series promises advanced cutting technology that leaves virtually no fine particles. The shredders also boast minimal heat generation, which can protect facilities from time-wasting plastic melting.
In addition to Metso’s guarantee of consistently homogeneous, quality RDF/SRF output, Metso offers top-of-the-line service throughout ownership of an F-Series or any one of our shredders. Maintenance is made quick, easy and reliable for all Metso products.
See one of the many ways Metso's M&J 4000M can be used and what it can produce.
The high volume of tires gives them a propensity to fill landfills faster. With Metso’s advanced shredding technology and as pictured here, tires can be reduced to minimize the volume and save as much valuable landfill area as possible.
Extending the life of landfills is the first step toward sustainability, and the versatility and variable configurations of Metso’s mobile preshredders make them the best tool in the market for achieving that goal.
Pictured below is a closer look at the output size after tires have been processed by an M&J PreShred 4000M.
From waste to plastics to metals, our advanced sorting portfolio delivers profitable results.
Manufactured specifically for the recycling and waste management industry, Tomra has more than 7,400 systems installed in 100 countries, backed by Tomra Care and training.
Tomra test centers give you the opportunity to test your material to find the best sensor technology combinations to efficiently meet target purity levels.
Compact, flexible and upgradeable, Tomra’s AUTOSORT features the broadest range of sensors to separate materials that are difficult to separate using conventional technologies.
Tomra’s Sharp Eye enhances sorting sharpness, while Flying Beam delivers better light efficiency to consistently deliver high sorting accuracy across all target fractions.
Tomra's AUTOSORT FLAKE and INNSORT FLAKE use near infrared and dual full-color camera technologies for unparalleled recovery and purity rates of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flakes.
High-speed X-ray transmission (XRT) technology found in X-TRACT detects and sorts metal grain sizes as small as 0.2 inches, reducing product losses.
Tomra FINDER’s high-resolution electromatic sensors identify metal fraction across a broad size spectrum, so fine fractions are not lost in the fluff in end-of-life vehicle applications.
AUTOSORT FINES combines electromagnetic, near-infrared and visible spectroscopy technologies to offer highly selective separation of plastics from metals when sorting e-scrap.
From planning and financing to service and maintenance, Tomra Care offers an expanded solutions portfolio to support customers throughout the complete planning and implementation process.
Offering secure, near-live monitoring of all your sorting lines, Tomra Insight turns sorters into connected devices, allowing data insights to be turned into tangible business improvements.
Premier Surplus upgraded from manual sorting after shredding and screening to an automated e-scrap circuit featuring Tomra AUTOSORT FINES and increased processing capacity by 300 percent.
AUTOSORT FINES gives Premier Surplus the versatility to switch formulas and run different materials through the stream.
A total of six Tomra FINDER sensor-based sorter lines anchor PNW Metal’s new automobile shredder residue (ASR) circuit to provide precise sorting of nonferrous materials.
PNW Metal quadrupled its zorba offerings with the new ASR sorting line and now offers a zebra/fine-shredded wire package that it couldn’t previously.
Centro Rottami, an aluminum recycler collaborating with a nearby foundry, relies on Tomra’s X-TRACT to produce a green billet with 85 percent recycled content.
The cleaner recycled aluminum Centro Rottami supplies its customers using Tomra sorters reduces slag forming in the furnace, so foundries clean their furnaces less.
Indorama Ventures recently installed Tomra’s AUTOSORT and AUTOSORT FLAKE for PET bottle and flake sorting, thus contributing to advancing plastics recycling.
Indorama Ventures' first PET bottle cleaning step is with Tomra AUTOSORT, and its second cleaning and purification step is with AUTOSORT FLAKE.
MRF Masotina S.p.A. uses 32 AUTOSORT machines to sort and recover high volumes of plastics from single-stream household waste collections and commercial waste.
With Tomra technicians’ level of expertise, Masotina S.p.A. sees Tomra not as a sorting technology supplier but as a real business partner.
Tomra Recycling 11121 Carmel Commons Blvd., Suite 155 Charlotte, NC 28226 980-279-5650 www.tomra.com/en/sorting/recycling