Tomra Recycling boosts Faerch operations amid European feedstock scarcity

Cirrec, Faerch Group’s recycling division, has advanced plastics recycling with Tomra Recycling’s flake solutions. Located in Duiven, the Netherlands, Cirrec aims to transform post-consumer PET packaging into new food-grade trays of the same quality.

Simone Tirelli, project manager at Cirrec, says: “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 for plastic, Europe, adds: “We were able to support Cirrec in this 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.”

Achieving high purity and capacity

The Cirrec Netherlands processing and recycling plant in Duiven.The Cirrec Netherlands processing and recycling plant in Duiven installed multiple Tomra flake sorting units in 2024 to improve its capabilities and performance.

Since installing Tomra Recycling’s units, Cirrec has seen a reduction in contaminants in its final streams. The plant now consistently achieves food-grade quality PET flakes, which are important for creating new food packaging.

Cirrec says Tomra Recycling’s technology has helped double the capacity of the previous line while delivering a higher quality output. Combined with the existing upgraded line, the plant now has a total processing capacity of 60,000 tons per year of post-consumer PET food trays.

Cirrec uses the sorted PET flakes from clear and color trays internally to produce pellets for the manufacture of new trays for 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 and expand this circular model.

Tomra Recycling’s Succi says: “This project is setting a new industry standard, changing how PET food trays are recycled, and speeding up the move toward a fully circular economy for food packaging.”

“It is also a strong example of how technology can support plant owners in discovering new business opportunities, whatever the market conditions.”

Tomra Recycling’s flake system

Cirrec’s investment in food-contact tray-to-tray recycling is said to have been a response to several market trends, including the challenge of finding high-quality feedstock in Europe, as well as the limitations of multilayer clear materials in the recycling loop.

Tomra’s flake sorting units for tray-to-tray recycling at the Cirrec Netherlands facility.New regulations are also said to have played a role in driving Faerch to incorporate more recycled content and simpler tray designs. 

Recycling post-consumer PET trays is challenging compared to PET bottles, explains Tomra Recycling. This is because the input material is post-consumer PET waste, such as pots, tubs, and trays, containing “significant and variable” contamination, including residual food, other plastics, and foreign materials. This is unlike the relatively clean bottle bales.

The contamination makes achieving high purity levels difficult, especially once the material is ground into flakes.

To address these challenges, Cirrec integrated 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 color, including transparent and opaque materials, including from highly contaminated input streams.

The AutoSort Flake is a higher-performance solution tailored for high-purity applications. It can remove significant quantities of metal, foreign polymers (such as PVC and PC), and other materials like wood, silicone, and rubber.

Tomra Recycling explains that the primary challenge Cirrec sought to overcome with 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 flake approach also enables Cirrec’s multi-stage process, which involves pre-sorting, washing, drying, and flake sorting to obtain pure, clear, and colored PET flakes.