Sweden’s Site Zero inaugurated: “World’s largest and most modern facility for plastic recycling”

20 Nov 2023 --- Svensk Plaståtervinning celebrated the grand opening of Site Zero, a state-of-the-art plastic sorting plant in Motala, Sweden. The plant, an extension of the original polymer sorting facility opened in 2019, on an area of 60,000 square meters aims to realize a circular economy for plastics by sorting Swedish plastic packaging waste into 12 fractions.

The project, spearheaded by Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Svensk Plaståtervinning, is a collaboration between three players — Svensk Plaståtervinning, Sutco and Tomra.

With an investment focused on closing the loop on plastics and achieving zero waste, Philipsson expressed his vision for Site Zero: “Around 33% of plastic packaging in Sweden is recycled, but unfortunately there is still a lot of recyclable materials lost. This offers great potential, one we are committed to unlocking and transforming into a valuable opportunity for the country and the environment.” 

Site Zero is equipped with Tomra and Sutco machines. It aims to tap into the untapped potential by processing 42 metric tons of materials per hour and recovering 12 different types of plastics, including a variety of polyolefins, PET, PS, EPS and PVC from mixed plastic packaging waste.

With Site Zero, Svensk Plaståtervinning aims to enable “zero waste, zero downcycling and zero emissions.”Boosting Swedish circularity
Philipsson explains that since 2019, Svensk Plaståtervinning successfully produced four different types of plastics for recycling. 

“We always wanted to do more, and with the latest technology, we can accomplish our goals. The collaboration in our first project has already convinced us of Tomra and Sutco. The quality and flexibility their systems offer and the reliable service made them our partners of choice. We aim to make Site Zero a blueprint for European sorting facilities.”

With Site Zero, Svensk Plaståtervinning aims to enable “zero waste, zero downcycling and zero emissions.”

Technologically driven, Site Zero boasts over 60 Tomra Autosort machines, forming a 5 km sorting line equipped with “some of the world’s most sophisticated sorter systems.” Additionally, it is equipped with screening drums, ballistic separators, the latest exhaust air technology, intelligent bunker management, fully automatic baling presses, compaction systems and digital process monitoring. 

The high-throughput technology allows the processing of approximately 42 metric tons of recyclables per hour, with up to 98% purity levels. The companies detail that the combination of sorting and process technology enables the collection of 12 fractions such as PE film, PP film, high-density PE, PP, PET bottles transparent, PET bottles color, PET trays, expanded polystyrene or polystyrene with an “extremely” high degree of purity.

Site Zero also plans to add recycling capacity to further process the main fractions locally.

Digital monitoring for optimized collection 
Oliver Lambertz, VP and head of operations and feedstock sourcing at Tomra Feedstock emphasizes: “We have accompanied Svensk Plaståtervinning right from the start and have always been excited to be part of this impactful project.” Site Zero covers an area of 60,000 square meters in total.

“Our partner, Sutco, took the lead in building the plant and we provided all the state-of-the-art sorting technology needed to maximize material recovery. The plant we are seeing today results from three partners working toward a common goal: Closing the loop on plastic packaging.”

All autosort machines are connected to Tomra Insight, a cloud-based data platform providing secure, near-real-time monitoring of all sorting lines. 

“When we started working with our customer and understood their goals, it was clear that a digital monitoring tool would help optimize the process. This is where Tomra Insight comes in. It collects sorting data, creates reports and sends notifications if any inconsistencies affect the overall performance of the sorting line. If this data is used as a strategic management tool, efficiencies can be increased and costs lowered,” describes Lambertz.   

The facility’s grand opening on November 15 saw more than 300 plastic value chain participants witnessing live demonstrations and engaging in discussions about the future of plastic recycling. 

In a press conference, Philipsson, Lambertz, Michael Ludden (CEO at Sutco) and Yannick Rödder (project manager at Sutco) shared their perspectives and future vision for the project, highlighting that the plant will be “the first of its kind” and able to produce the “highest material qualities,” while decreasing its ecological footprint. 

By Radhika Sikaria