Områ - Norway’s new national facility for sorting plastic packaging waste - has officially opened today, jointly owned by TOMRA and Plastretur and expected to process approximately 80% of Norway’s packaging waste by 2030.
The companies say Områ uses advanced sensor-based technology to sort mixed plastic waste into ten separate mono-fractions including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene (PS), enabling improved recovery and increased recycling rates.
The facility can transform plastic packaging waste into uniform polymer fractions ready for recycling, including plastic that would previously have been incinerated, with the capacity to process ‘90,000 tonnes of plastic per year’. Reportedly, around one-third of Norway’s plastic packaging waste is currently recycled; the rest is mostly incinerated.
Located in Holtskogen, just outside Oslo, Områ will serve as an offtake solution for municipalities and waste management companies considering the introduction of automated mixed waste sorting (MWS), seeking to increase recycling rates without depending solely on household source separation.
In similar news, Morssinkhof-Rymoplast Group and Fost Plus’ plastics recycling facility in Lommel aims to convert everyday waste from 80% of Belgian households into high-quality recyclate for packaging applications. The plant is expected to process milk bottles, butter tubs, shampoo containers, and other day-to-day household waste collected from four million Belgian homes via the national PMD (plastic, metal, and drink cartons) system.
Pellenc ST revealed that its optical sorting technology is being used at a new sorting plant for PET beverage containers in Skurve, Norway, created through a collaboration between Infinitum and Nordic Recycling Systems. Said to process more than 14000 tonnes of PET bottles and beverage cans every year, the plant is fitted with a patented robot bag opening system with self-learning camera systems.
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