Sweden invests in 19 near infrared sorters

The city of Motala in south Sweden is celebrating what is claimed to be Europe’s most modern recycling facility for plastic packaging.

It took Sutco Recycling Technik of Germany 18 months to build the multi-million Euro plant, which is owned by the Svensk Plastervinning, a major Swedish organisation responsible for the sorting and recycling of plastics packaging from household waste.

Tomra’s helping hand

Sutco has set new standards with respect to the planning, design and construction of this fully automated sorting system. The new plant features a line of 19 near-infrared (NIR) machines from recycling technology specialist Tomra.

20 tonnes per hour

The facility, which operates in three shifts, has the capacity to handle 115 000 tonnes of plastics per year, or 20 tonnes per hour, thus being ‘the largest and most efficient plant for sorting plastic packaging in Europe’. ‘We aim to process all plastic packaging and provide new plastic products for the Swedish market,’ says Svensk Plastervinning’s ceo Matthias Philipsson.