Cooperation for the production of polystyrene recyclates for food packaging

TOMRA, INEOS Styrolution and EGN Ent­sor­gungs­gesellschaft Niederrhein announced a ground-breaking project to convert post-consumer polystyrene (PS) waste into recycled polystyrene for food packaging applications.

Project partners
© Tomra

Project partners
© Tomra
EGN, a subsidiary of the SWK AG, will build a green field state-of-the-art advanced mechanical recycling facility processing with a capacity to process 40 kt of post-consumer polystyrene (PS) waste per year. It is expected to be the first large-scale facility of its kind. EGN will manage sorting and washing, while INEOS Styrolution will be responsible for the “super-cleaning” purification process to comply with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requirements for food contact applications. The new facility will be located in Krefeld/Germany. It is expected to start up in mid-2025, allowing INEOS Styrolution to start serving customers at commercial scale.

An agreement with TOMRA to provide sorting technology and feedstock complete the project. TOMRA Feedstock will collect post-consumer polystyrene waste from disposed food packaging and deliver it to the new site in Krefeld/Germany.

 

Key facts about recycling of polystyrene

The advanced mechanical recycling process benefits from the inherent properties of polystyrene making it the material of choice for real circularity.

PS is proven to be one of the best sortable plastics in the waste stream and is one of only two polymers that can achieve food-contact qualities with mechanical recycling. The material offers infinite recyclability, retaining its property profile after many mechanical recycling cycles at virgin quality levels. Due to its properties, PS takes up fewer contaminants in the waste stream. It is expected that a significant percentage of recycled food packaging material will be realized in a very short timeframe. Investment in commercial scaling of PS recycling will lead to a growing market share and a reduction in packaging taxes and licensing fees in countries where such frameworks are in place.

www.tomra.com

www.ineos-styrolution.com

www.entsorgung-niederrhein.de

x

Related articles:

STYRENICS CIRCULAR SOLUTIONS – Expert panel discussion at "K 2019"

Polystyrene (PS) is a transparent, foamed white, amorphous or semi-crystalline thermoplastic. PS is the raw material for numerous products and is used in a wide variety of applications, such as...

more

TOMRA celebrates 50th anniversary by announcing world without waste mission

TOMRA, the global provider of advanced collection and sorting systems, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Each of the group’s four divisions – Collection, Food, Recycling and Mining – marked the...

more

AMUT: Recovery of food packaging waste

In September 2018 a new facility for POAL recycling will be in operation to produce Ecoallene. POAL is a polyethylene + aluminium polycomposite recovered from food packaging (commonly known as...

more

Reciclar S.A. processes up to 600 million plastic bottles per year with TOMRA sorting systems

Tomra and Reciclar S.A. collaborate to advance a circular economy for plastics in Latin America. The Argentinian plant, with a surface area of more than 22 000 m2, features the latest generation of...

more

AMARSUL puts its trust in TOMRA to optimize its production and achieve recycling targets

AMARSUL, a company based in Portugal and responsible for the treatment and recovery of recyclable materials from urban waste in the nine municipalities of the Setúbal Peninsula, has relied on TOMRA's...

more