Site Zero inaugurated – doubling the recycling of plastic packaging

Site Zero increases the percentage of received material that can be sorted and recycled, from 47 percent up to 95 percent. The number of plastic fractions that can be received and recycled goes from four to twelve, and each fraction is sorted separately to maintain the value in the material. The plant’s capacity is 200,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, which roughly corresponds to the volume of plastic packaging that is put on the Swedish market.

All in all, the opening of Site Zero means that basically all plastic packaging that comes to Svensk Plaståtervinning can now be recycled. In addition to the fact that the technology for increased recycling is now in place, an important prerequisite for a higher material recycling rate is that the consumer sorts their packaging by source and leaves it for recycling.

– With Site Zero, we have set a new path for plastic recycling and the rest of Europe. The world needs to follow suit, to reduce emissions from incineration and the need for new fossil plastics. It is no longer justifiable to burn as much plastic as we do or melt it down into low-quality products that cannot be recycled again, says Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Svensk Plaståtervinning, in a press release.

Circular recycling for your packaging

Näringslivets Producentansvar works to contribute in the best way to the Swedish recycling goals, including through selected suppliers and partners. We therefore have a strategic partnership with Svensk Plaståtervinning as a supplier of recycling services, and together we push towards circular recycling.

Through our partnership with Svensk Plaståtervinning and Site Zero, we can help producers who put plastic packaging on the Swedish market to fulfill their producer responsibility and lower their climate footprint, while reducing the need for fossil raw materials.

Read the press release from Svensk Plaståtervinning

Read more about Site Zero at Svensk Plaståtervinning

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Facts about Site Zero

• Size: approx. 60,000 sqm
• Receiving capacity: 200 000 tons of mixed plastic packaging from housholds per year
• Sorting speed: approx. 1 000 packaging per second.
• Sorting capacity: rigid PP, rigid HDPE, flexible LDPE, PET trays, transparent PET bottles, colored PET bottles, flexible PP, EPS, PS, PVC, two grades of mixed Polyolefins, metals, and non-plastic waste
• Sorting sensors: 60 Near Infrared-sensors, laser and camera technology
• Agglomeration output intended for: chemical recycling, composite products
• System: Fully automated, digitalized real-time optimization
• Total investment: approx. SEK 1 billion (year 2019-2023). The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has financed just over 207 million SEK through the climate investment program Climate Leap (Klimatklivet)