The world's largest plastic waste sorting plant

Sweden's 60,000-square-meter Site Zero plant can sort up to 200,000 tons of plastic waste per year thanks to an infrared camera system.

Site Zero plastic waste sorting plant in Sweden. Photo: AP

Sweden has opened a new plant in the central city of Motala, which is expected to double the amount of plastic packaging recycled in the country, CGTN reported on November 19. Thanks to advanced technology, the plant will be able to sort up to 200,000 tons of plastic packaging per year, according to the non-profit Sweden Plastic Recycling. The company said this is more than any other plastic sorting facility in the world.

An older plant in the same location could only sort five types of plastic, meaning about 47% of the material was recycled, with the rest still incinerated, according to Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Sweden Plastic Recycling. The new plant, meanwhile, could recycle 95% of plastic packaging, minimizing the amount burned. Burning plastic impacts the climate by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The world produces more than 430 million tons of plastic each year, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that quickly become waste, flood the oceans and enter the human food chain, according to an April report by the United Nations Environment Programme. Global plastic waste is expected to triple by 2060, with about half ending up in landfills and less than a fifth being recycled.

At Site Zero, a 60,000-square-meter facility, conveyor belts move 40 tons of mixed plastic waste per hour. The chocolate wrappers, plastic bags, yogurt containers, and white polystyrene are then gradually broken down, sorted by size, and sorted in a fully automated process using infrared cameras. Asa Stenmarck, an expert at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, believes that eventually there will be a market for all 12 types of plastic the facility sorts.

Once sorted, plastics can be recycled either by traditional mechanical means, or by chemical methods, which typically use heat or chemical solvents to break down the plastics into liquids and gases to produce oil-like mixtures or base chemicals.

Philipsson said that while better sorting would increase the amount of plastic recycled in Sweden, the effectiveness would also depend on households sorting their waste properly. “Most plastics are still burned because they are not sorted by households,” he said.

Thu Thao (According to CGTN )

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