Faerch (Cirrec) and TOMRA Recycling partner to pioneer post-consumer food tray-to-tray recycling
Cirrec BV, part of the Faerch Group and located in Duiven, The Netherlands, has achieved a significant breakthrough in plastics recycling thanks to TOMRA Recycling’s flakes solutions. As Faerch’s dedicated recycling division, Cirrec specialises in circular solutions for plastics. Its mission is to enable true circularity in food packaging by transforming post-consumer PET packaging back into new food-grade trays of the same high quality.
Cirrec operates state-of-the-art recycling facilities and plays a pivotal role in reducing plastic waste and supporting sustainable packaging systems within the Faerch Group’s integrated value chain. The Cirrec Netherlands B.V. plant in Duiven processes and recycles post-consumer plastic waste (PET). In 2024, multiple TOMRA flake sorting units were installed, significantly advancing the plant’s capabilities and performance.
Cirrec’s strategic investment was in response to several key market trends. They faced the growing challenge of finding enough high-quality feedstock in Europe, along with the limitations of multi-layer clear materials in the recycling loop. New regulations also played a major role, pushing for more recycled content and simpler tray designs.
Addressing the challenges of post-consumer tray recycling
Recycling post-consumer PET trays presents unique and significant challenges compared to PET bottles. The input material consists of post-consumer PET waste (pots, tubs and trays). Unlike relatively clean bottle bales, bales of used trays contain significant and variable contamination, including residual food, other plastics and various foreign materials. This makes achieving high purity levels exceptionally difficult, especially once the material is ground into flakes.
Before this latest investment, Cirrec operated two lines. One of the existing tray lines remains operational after being significantly improved, while the other was removed in 2023 to make way for the new tray line which was installed in 2024. The primary challenge Cirrec sought to overcome with the TOMRA’s flake systems was separating mixed-color and natural content to ensure a very high level of purity, therefore enabling the material to be used for new food-grade trays.
TOMRA’s advanced sorting technology
To achieve these ambitious goals, Cirrec partnered with TOMRA Recycling, integrating multiple advanced TOMRA flake sorting machines, including INNOSORT FLAKE and AUTOSORT FLAKE units. The INNOSORT FLAKE is designed for sorting diverse plastic flakes by polymer and colour, including transparent and opaque materials, even from highly contaminated input streams. In contrast, the AUTOSORT FLAKE is a higher-performance solution specifically tailored for high-purity applications. It is capable of removing significant quantities of metal, foreign polymers such as PVC and PC and other materials like wood, silicone and rubber.
This technology is crucial for Cirrec’s multi-stage process, which involves pre-sorting, washing, drying and then sophisticated flake sorting to obtain pure clear and colored PET flakes. TOMRA not only supplied the cutting-edge machines but also provided essential on-field support, ensuring seamless integration and optimal performance.
Achieving high purity and enhanced capacity
Since installing the new TOMRA units, Cirrec has seen a marked reduction in contaminants in the final streams. The plant now consistently achieves food-grade quality PET flakes, which is essential for the material’s internal use in creating new food packaging.
The new line, supported by TOMRA’s technology, has doubled the capacity of the previous line while at the same time delivering a higher quality output. Combined with the existing upgraded line, the plant now boasts a total processing capacity of 60,000 tons per year of post-consumer PET food trays.
The sorted PET clear and PET colour trays flakes are used internally by Cirrec to produce pellets for the manufacture of new trays within the Faerch Group, containing up to 70% recycled content. While the material is currently for internal consumption only, the potential exists to build other new lines across Europe, further expanding this circular model.
A partnership for true circularity
Simone Tirelli, Project Manager of the Recycling Division at Faerch (& Cirrec), comments: “We chose TOMRA’s solutions for their strong performance, reliable service and ease of management. Beyond just supplying the technology, TOMRA’s on-field support and problem-solving approach proved invaluable throughout the project. This collaboration has clearly demonstrated that high-quality, post-consumer tray-to-tray recycling is possible and happening now at scale.”
Riccardo Succi, TOMRA’s Segment Manager Plastic – Europe, adds: “With our extensive industry knowledge, we were able to support Cirrec in this groundbreaking collaboration by sorting and purifying even difficult streams. Cirrec is now creating new feedstock while preventing the downcycling of bottles into trays which is exactly the approach needed to truly future proof our industry. These distinct recycling streams must be maintained to ensure that bottles remain in their dedicated loop and that trays are consistently recycled back into new trays.
“This pioneering project is setting a new industry standard, truly changing how PET food trays are recycled and speeding up the move towards a fully circular economy for food packaging. It’s also a strong example of how cutting-edge technology can support plant owners in discovering new business opportunities – whatever the market conditions.”
Caption: Cirrec (Faerch Group) invested in a new line featuring TOMRA Recycling’s INNOSORT FLAKE and AUTOSORT FLAKE.