Mixed waste sorting changing the game at IVAR IKS in Norway

Since it stopped the separate collection for plastics in its region and unleashed the power of mixed waste sorting, the facility increased recovery rates from 28% to 82% and achieved recycling rates of 56,4%, thus meeting the EU’s 2025 recycling targets ahead of time. Today, IVAR ranks first in processing MSW by volume.

Situated in Forus, between the cities of Stavanger and Sandnes in the southwest of Norway, IVAR manages all residues and waste collection from 10 municipalities with an approximate population of 325.000. With its advanced municipal solid waste sorting plant, it recovers high volumes of recyclable materials before incineration, reducing CO2 emissions and the global dependency on virgin material by supplying high-quality recycled content for new products and packaging.
 

 
In late 2014, the plant building project began with Sutco Recycling Technik, chosen as a plant supplier for IVAR’s combined residual waste and paper sorting plant. Sutco, in turn, selected TOMRA Recycling as project partner for sorting equipment. The new facility started operation in January 2019. Since then, 22 of TOMRA’s state-of-the-art AUTOSORT sorting units have efficiently and effectively sorted plastics (PET, PS, LDPE, HDPE, PP) and paper (mixed paper, cardboard, beverage cartons) out of the residual waste (grey bins) collected curbside. In addition, metals (aluminum, steel) are recovered from the residual waste.

“We have been delighted to be given the opportunity to consult with IVAR in the planning of the new plant, provide our latest sensor-based sorting equipment and accompany such an exciting and game-changing project,”, comments Oliver Lambertz, TOMRA Recycling’s Vice President and Head of Business Development. By combining the most advanced processes, plant equipment and sorting technologies, the waste sorting plant has set itself the following targets: sort nearly all PE, PP, PS or PET plastics suited for (mechanical) recycling; sort 95% of the fractions identified; and realize purity rates of 95-98%.

From mixed waste to recyclable mono fractions

The residual waste generated by the municipalities IVAR serves contains a large amount of valuable and recyclable materials, which in their purest and homogenous form, can be further processed, recycled, and reintroduced into the market as high-quality recyclates. Today, IVAR processes 40 tons of MSW per hour from which paper, plastics, metals, and residues are separated in numerous steps:
 

To further increase purity levels, these clean material fractions undergo a second sorting step, also carried out by AUTOSORT® machines, to remove the remaining contaminants. The high-quality PS and PET end fractions are then packed into material-type-specific bales and sent to different mechanical recycling plants in Europe. LDPE, HDPE and PP are washed, dried and pelletized in the Forus plant and sold as pellets.

At the same time, the mixed paper fraction, as well as mixed paper and cardboard infeed coming from separate collection, is processed in a separate sorting line. From the 23.250 tons of paper sorted per shift, 95,7% of the infeed material is turned into four salable paper products such De-ink, OCC (corrugated cardboard), Tetra Pak and carton.
 

Leading the way with TOMRA technology

When TOMRA was selected as technology provider of IVAR’s waste sorting plant, it was clear that the most advanced sensor-based sorting technology was required. Specifically, TOMRA provided 22 of its state-of-the-art AUTOSORT® machines to extract both paper and plastics from household waste. Outstanding technologies and leading-edge features make AUTOSORT® unique.

 

When starting operations in 2019, IVAR set an overall goal to recover nearly all plastic types (PE, PP, PS, PET) and a more concrete target to realize purity rates of 95-96% in LDPE, PP, HDPE, PS and PET sorting. Thanks to the ultraprecise sorting machines, the plant’s goal soon became reality, with purity rates of up to 98% achieved. As for paper, sorting studies have shown that more than 85% of all beverage cartons in the residual household waste have been successfully separated from the household waste stream.

A new life for plastics

After extraction of recyclables from the infeed material, the sorted fractions undergo an extensive recycling process on-site. Whereas homogenous PET and PS bales as well as both ferrous and non-ferrous metals are sold to European recyclers, Polyolefins (LDPE, HDPE, and PP) are shredded into flakes, hot washed, dried and pelletized on-site before these are sold as industrial commodities. Thousands of tons of PE and PP recovered from MSW have been diverted from incineration and to be integrated in the production of high-quality PO recyclates.

Cutting down environmental impact

The business case at IVAR proves that sorting prior to disposal can preserve recyclable materials previously incinerated and strongly contribute to climate protection. Prior to opening the waste sorting plant, the separate collection rate in the region served by IVAR was high: 65% of the waste collected in the municipalities was sorted. However, with the plant fully operational, the recovery rates of recyclables are now as high as 74%.

From an environmental perspective, sorting, recovering, and recycling plastics from mixed waste streams – instead of relying solely on material-dedicated collection systems – leads to a two-fold reduction in CO2 emissions. First, less plastics, that comes with a high caloric value but based on fossil carbon, are incinerated. Second, the provision of high-quality recycled plastics reduces the need for primary production. Thus, IVAR contributes to delivering environment-friendly feed and works in line with the principles of a circular economy, resulting in a decrease of 33,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year, which is equivalent to taking 20,000 fossil fuel cars off the road.