Opening of the biggest plastics sorting plant in Austria
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Saubermacher sorts the material on behalf of Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA). Most of the packaging waste comes from households and businesses. As ever, substances such as glass, paper or residual waste end up in the yellow bin or bag. In Styria, the missorted material accounts for around 23 %. In this plant, the REDWAVE sorting machines, which rely on sensor-based sorting using near-infrared and colour detection technology, separate the plastic packaging by grade. This is essential for its use in the manufacture of new products. “Banning plastic does not help. We must continue to improve recycling and accelerate the use of recycled materials in production processes,“ says Hans Roth, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Saubermacher.
Plant details
Aluminium cans and beverage cartons are also now being separated, in addition to 14 different plastic fractions. The automatic plastic sorting plant in Styria/Austria processes around 32 000 t of packaging waste per year, mainly from Graz and its surroundings. In addition, about 40 % of the material is used as a substitute fuel in the cement industry.
“This investment means we can increase the proportion of material recycling to 40 % and thus come one step closer to our vision of Zero Waste”, explained Gerhard Ziehenberger, COO of Saubermacher AG. Silvia Schweiger-Fuchs, managing director at REDWAVE: “Zero Waste is a very important endeavor to keep our environment worth living in for our children in the future. Our environment is a treasure, which we have well preserved internationally in recent decades. We will continue to strive to extend our leading technological position in recycling technology.“