Stadler designs and installs light packaging sorting plant for PreZero Recycling
Environmental services provider PreZero commissioned Stadler, the globally active German company specialised in the planning, production and assembly of turnkey recycling and sorting plants, to design and install a state-of-the-art light packaging sorting facility in Eitting, Germany.
The new facility is capable of sorting the packaging fractions by colour and, very importantly, filter black plastics. This results in high-quality output that can be recycled into new products. With an annual throughput of approximately 120,000 tons, it is claimed to be the biggest light packaging plant in Europe.
Besides PET bottles and other PET, the sorting plant receives light packaging made up of tin foil, ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, aluminium, composites with aluminium content, film PE plastics, nets and foam, PP and PS plastics, EPS, PVC and plastic packaging, TetraPak cartons, paper and cardboard. The process, which includes advanced fines preparation and automated film colour sorting results in 18 different output fractions separated by material and colour.
The design required the innovative thinking of Stadler’s design teams: “This was the largest project to date for us, with 272 conveyor belts installed filling the hall on five levels and supported by over 1,000 tons of steelwork,” explains Wolfgang Köser, joint Project Manager. “To achieve the high-quality sorting PreZero was looking for, we used state-of-the-art technology in our design,” adds Benny Kalmbach, joint Project Manager. “The advanced equipment included 38 NIR (Near Infrared) optical sorters, our ballistic separators and robot-assisted secondary sorting.”
The fully automated bunker management at the plant is another state-of-art process: “This means, for example, that there are no longer staff members permanently tied to the baler. In addition, the desired bale weights – and consequently bale lengths – can be achieved according to the customer’s specifications through the weighing cells under all bunkers. This has the advantage that the trucks can be loaded optimally for the best possible transport result,” explains Benny Kalmbach.
Thanks to a close collaboration of the teams at Stadler and PreZero, the project was completed in a short time, as Wolfgang Köser explains: “We had a very tight schedule, with just 12 months from signing the contract to start-up with material, but we succeeded with a good and close cooperation between us at Stadler, and the teams at PreZero and the other companies involved in the project. Short decision-making processes and a target-oriented approach enabled us to move forward quickly at every stage.”
The start-up of the sorting plant was on schedule in early January 2022, and “the ramp-up phase is running perfectly,” says Stefan Kaiser, Head of Engineering Sorting Systems International PreZero Recycling Deutschland.
With the view that any waste that is not recycled is a wasted piece of raw material, PreZero strives for a continuous improvement of its processes – aiming for 100 percent reusable material. As part of the Schwarz Group, a leading food retail company in Europe, it is able to develop solutions along the entire value chain – from production to retail, collection, sorting and recycling to reuse – in order to close the loop.
