Dutch facility to sort plastics packaging

Netherlands – Netherlands-based waste management firm Sita – part of Suez Environnement – has installed a new plastics packaging sorting facility in the Rotterdam seaport area.

The joint venture with communal collection system Nedvang is designed to tackle the increased proportion of separately-collected plastics from households in the Netherlands.
Start-up is expected shortly for the new facility which will be capable of operating at a capacity of around 30 000 tonnes per year.
This new development adds to the Dutch infrastructure for sorting household plastics; previously, the plastic was treated in Germany. ‘Within two years, the separate collection of household plastic has progressed,’ says Nedvang’s Managing Director Jan Storm. ‘In 2010, collection of household plastics tripled. Sita now has installed the capacity to treat this.’
The sorting plant is being tailor-made to local requirements. Sita’s CEO Adriaan Visser praises the flexibility of the installation which can be adapted to new developments in mixed material throughput. ‘The sorting installation boasts the most modern techniques like infra-red detection which can distinguish the different types of plastics,’ he states. ‘This will result in a clean stream of PET, PE and PP.’
Nedvang is sole operator of the collection system for packaging materials, in collaboration with packaging producers and local authorities in the Netherlands.