Pellenc ST has 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.
Infinitum opened the sorting plant in November 2024, 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, where artificial intelligence guarantees that the bags are opened completely.
Pellenc ST says that a unique air transport system guarantees low operating costs as well as a clean environment, and the plant is also equipped with the most advanced label removing system ensuring loose labels are collected in big bags.
Concerning optical sorting, a COMPACT+ sorter uses infra-red spectroscopy to recover all PET bottles and Vision spectroscopy to separate them by colour, with ‘above 99% purity’ for the clear PET fraction. Once sorted, PET bottles (around 70%) and aluminium cans (around 20%) are sent to their own recycling channels for a second life.
Last year Plast Nordic and Norner announced a partnership aiming to use alkaline hydrolysis to recycle 97% of PET waste generated in the Nordics back into their raw materials, targeting the packaging and textile industries with their ‘virgin-quality’ rPET resin. The process is reportedly chemical-free, instead making use of microwaves, and Plast Nordic states that the process takes under 10 minutes to complete.
More recently, Pellenc ST and Polytag joined forces to combine advanced sorting technology with invisible UV watermark based tracking, aiming to improve material recovery and traceability throughout the recycling process. By embedding smart data at barcode level directly into packaging materials, the collaboration aims to empower waste management companies and brand owners with control over the recycling journey of their products, ensuring packaging stays within the circular economy.
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