Prior to the refurb, Cireco relied heavily on manual handpicking but this limited the volume of infeed material that could be processed at the plant. Now, the investment in the MRF and the new sorting equipment has more than doubled the plant’s capacity. The mixed cans and plastics infeed is now processed at 12tph and the paper and cardboard infeed at 9tph. Material recovery rates have risen with Cireco now benefiting from market leading prices due to the high quality and segregation of materials. All of this has been achieved without any additional labour costs.
Austin Carey, Managing Director at Blue Group (Scotland), comments: “TOMRA Recycling is the market leader in sensor-based sorting solutions, and we’ve had great success using TOMRA’s equipment in previous projects. We were confident that the AUTOSORT® was the best available solution for Cireco’s MRF upgrade. Scotland is preparing for the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) next year and the experts at TOMRA have helped to put in place a futureproof solution which is capable of adapting to changes in infeed material that may result from the roll out of the DRS.”
Robin Baird, Chief Operating Officer at Cireco, adds: “Working in partnership with TOMRA from inception to delivery allowed us to deliver a first-class facility designed for our specific requirements and material. By taking the time to listen to our needs and fully sample our material, TOMRA ensured the package offered would deliver on our exacting standards. Our installation period covered the middle of the global pandemic and, despite this, TOMRA still hit installation targets and deadlines which was critical to our business due to increased waste volumes. We look forward to continuing to work with them on future projects."
A timelapse video of the MRF upgrade recorded by Blue Group can be found here.