Waste
PLASTIMAGEN
Viridor specified TOMRA Sorting Recycling’s sensor-based sorting solutions in its tender documentation for the upgrade. Having already worked together on several projects around the world, STADLER and TOMRA worked in close collaboration from the earliest stages of the tender enquiry to ensure the plant and equipment met Viridor’s specific requirements.
By investing heavily in the plant upgrade, Viridor has been able to transform its operations, increasing capacity from 65,000tpa to 75,000tpa (equivalent to 17 tonnes per hour). The plant is now operating at full capacity and at optimum processing levels. Output quality has also improved considerably thanks to the new TOMRA equipment installed during the upgrade.
Masons’s infeed material is comingled dry mixed recyclables (not including glass) from Suffolk County Council. The material is first processed using brand new mechanical separation equipment, including a dosing drum, a STADLER PPK ballistic separator, a screening drum, STADLER STT 2000 ballistic separators, overband magnets and eddy current separators. Following mechanical separation, the material (apart from fibre) then goes through an air separation process before arriving at the newly installed TOMRA AUTOSORT® optical sensor-based sorting units.
With the new mechanical and sensor-based equipment in place, Viridor is now reaping a number of operational benefits, including:
Steven Walsh, Sales Engineer at TOMRA Sorting Recycling, comments: “We were delighted to work with STADLER on this project, having already worked with them on a number of other projects nationally and internationally. Prior to the refurb, this Viridor site could only sort mixed plastics for further processing at the Rochester PRF and it was extremely manual sorting focused, with hand sorting used for all cardboard and refined paper grades. Now though, Masons is among the most highly automated plants in the UK and by integrating TOMRA equipment and benefitting from TOMRA’s technical expertise, Viridor can capture superior quality materials ready to feed back into the circular economy.”
Benjamin Eule, Director at STADLER UK Limited, adds: “Our role was to decommission the existing plant and supply and install a full turnkey solution for the newly upgraded plant. It was one of the quickest turnarounds we’ve ever worked on. It only took around three months from the initial discussion to signing contracts and then, once contracts were signed, we were on-site five months later to undertake the installation. It took two weeks to decommission the plant and everything was brand new other than one TOMRA optical sorter which TOMRA simply uploaded the latest software onto as it was only a few years old. The installation – including demolition of the old equipment – took 80 days in total. We installed new steel work, conveyors and all electrical components required for the process. We also managed both the cold and hot commissioning processes."