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re-gen waste Invests mIllIons to meet
waste-to-energy demand

re-gen waste has
invested £5 million
(us$ 6.4 million) in
expanding its facility in
Newry, Northern Ireland.
The expansion support-
ed 20 construction jobs
and will create at least
30 permanent positions
when the project is com-

pleted next month.
Re-Gen provides mixed dry recycling and municipal solid waste col-
lection and processing services for public authorities and private
companies across the island of Ireland and the UK. It also recovers
energy from ‘unrecyclable’ household waste that was previously
sent to landfill.
The company currently exports over 80 000 tonnes of solid recov-
ered fuel annually to waste-to-energy plants across Europe. With
the investment, Re-Gen Waste will be able to manufacture higher
calorific value pellets and baled material for the cement and steel
industries. This output will be shipped abroad from local ports.
‘This is an incredibly important area of our work, as our throwaway
society is generating in excess of 27 million tonnes of mixed house-
hold waste per year in the UK alone,’ says managing director
Joseph Doherty.
Today, there are more than 2430 waste-to-energy plants in opera-
tion worldwide, capable of treating 360 million tonnes of material in
one year. Around 410 of these facilities are in Europe. The global
WtE market is projected to be worth US$ 42.7 billion (EUR 38.3 bil-
lion) by 2024, up from US$ 28.4 billion in 2017.

stadler’s 30 mIllIon hQ Is oPen for BusIness
recycling technology provider stadler opened its new global
headquarters in Germany last month.
The ‘state-of-the-art’ 5 storey HQ cost a total of EUR 30 million
and is located in the town of Altshausen, where Stadler was
founded 228 years ago. With a 680 square-metre footprint, the
premises contain 3400 square-metres of offices with working
spaces for 100 people (and provision for more), six meeting
rooms, and an auditorium. The roof is equipped with solar
panels.
To date, Stadler has assembled more than 350 sorting plants and
installed more than 3000 sorting machines worldwide. According
to company ceo Willi Stadler, the expansion was necessary to
accommodate the Stadler’s recent and future growth.
Meanwhile, Stadler is introducing a new machine developed for
the construction & demolition industry: the ballistic separator
STT6000. This machine is much more robust than the regular bal-
listic separators and is well suited for large, heavy materials, says
R&D specialist Christian Nordmann.
‘There is no need for pre-sorting or pre-shredding the input,’ he
adds. ‘Also, differently from screening drums, which separate the
material only in two fractions, the three-fraction output of the

STT6000 means that impurities can be easily removed, as they are
still in their original size.’
Extra features such as big shafts without swinging frame,
exchangeable wear plates on the side walls, and an integrated
lubrication system, enable sorting of materials up to 1.5m in
length and reduce the vulnerability to impurities and damage.

A u t h o R Kirstin Linnenkoper

+49 221–4984–153 www.steinertglobal.com/waste-recycling

Your technology partner for NIR sensor-based sorting
combined with magnet and eddy current separator

SORTED

COMMERCIAL AND
PACKAGING WASTE

what Is the Best way to deal wIth modern-day
PackagIng?

recyclass, a Brussels-
based initiative dedicat-
ed to improving the rec-
ylability of packaging
products, is making
headway regarding plas-
tic film.
RecyClass carried out
tests on the compatibility
of the ethylene vinyl
alcohol (EVOH) barrier in
polyethlene (PE) film with
the recycling process.
The findings show that
EVOH with a threshold of
up to 5% of the total
weight of the PE film has
a slight impact on the
recycled material.
However, above this
limit, an immediate

impact on the extrusion process was observed. One of the results includes
increased yellowing of the material as well as a net increase of haze and gels &
specks and a frequent bubble breakage.
RecyClass design for recycling guidelines for PE films, as well as the RecyClass
tool, will be updated on the basis of these new findings. Accordingly, an EVOH
concentration below or equal to 5% by weight will be considered as having limit-
ed compatibility, and an EVOH concentration above 5% by weight will be treated
as ‘not compatible’ with recycling.
Consequently, within the RecyClass grading system (on the energy efficiency scale
from A to F), EVOH with a threshold of up to 5% of the total weight of the PE film
can be ranked maximally as class B1. This class implies that a package has some
‘minor’ recyclability issues.
‘Today, the industry is actively working on innovative packaging solutions that are
not disruptive to the recycling processes,’ RecyClass observes. ‘By evaluating the
new packaging technologies and providing advice on design we hope to help the
industry to ensure recyclability of products on the market.’
The tests were carried out in independent laboratories that run analyses on differ-
ent samples.

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