Some of this glass used to end up in landfills and will now be recycled and reused. 2 million were invested in the equipment made in Spain. euros.
Pieces of glass the size of a fly’s wing
“The optics of the new equipment are so sensitive that the technologists who combined the equipment noticed that even the wing of a fly is supported by the new equipment with a glass shard and separates it,” says Algirdas Blazgys, director of Energesman.
The conducted experiments show that even 98.82 percent of the total mixed waste flow of the population can be selected. of broken glass in it is practically all glass waste that residents throw into mixed waste containers.
The new glass line raises the waste to a height of 8 m – as if to the third floor of a house – and through many shaking, sieving, optical separation processes separates the glass fragments down to the smallest, which were not previously sorted.
“We searched for a long time for the most suitable solution for the Vilnius region, we were interested in the practice of other countries, we went to exhibitions, we analyzed the innovations applied elsewhere and we chose the glass selection technology of a Spanish manufacturer. We can be happy that the first weeks exceeded our expectations – we are extracting more glass from the waste than we planned. There is really a lot of it in the mixed waste of the population”, says A.Blazgys.
According to the manager of the factory, the waste already dried and chopped up to 8 cm is supplied to the new equipment in the biotunnels. The equipment very precisely separates ceramic fragments, stones, plastic, and at the end, a very clean technical compost is obtained – soil mixed with waste.
Less waste to landfill
Lithuania has set goals to reduce the amount of waste entering landfills.
Company photo/Energesman glass sorting line
“More and more waste is used in Vilnius mechanical biological treatment facilities. The installation of the new glass sorting equipment, the production of a special SRF mixture for the cement industry from waste, and the food waste separated by residents using orange bags since the beginning of the year have made it possible to halve – from 19 to 10 percent – the amount of waste left after sorting from the factory to the landfill”, – the factory’s achievements are named Tomas Vaitkevičius, the director of the factory owner UAB “VAATC”, which selected UAB “Energesman” as the operator of the factory in the public procurement.
“This is a great progress that we have achieved by introducing waste management innovations and thus promoting the circular economy in Lithuania. Such solutions are very necessary in the implementation of the European Union’s green course and in order to become the first climate-neutral continent”, says A.Blazgys.
Selected glass is recyclable
The new equipment was purchased in cooperation with the packaging waste management organization “Žaliasis taškas”. In return for the investment, Zaliasis taškas received priority rights to receive recycling documents for glass waste selected at the Energesman plant and sent for recycling. The documents will be issued proportionally to the members of “Zhalioj taško” – manufacturers and importers who release glass packaging to the Lithuanian market.
According to Almont Kybarts, the director of “Zalioj taška”, the task of cleaning the glass packaging has become quite a challenge until now.
“Paradoxically, although all glass packaging can be easily recycled an unlimited number of times, we could not ensure the repair of all containers released to the market. The reason is insufficient awareness of the population in sorting household waste. Thus, we do not find this waste in the glass packaging sorting containers as much as the products packed in them are bought – large quantities end up in mixed waste containers. “Without additional equipment, it is difficult or in most cases impossible to select broken glass from the mass of mixed waste, so we hope that the special line already operating today will become a solution for realizing the goals of recycling glass packaging”, he explains.
Most of the glass is selected in Vilnius
In the whole of Lithuania, almost 5400 tons of glass waste were selected from the general mixed municipal waste stream during the past year. Most of them – 3765 tons, or 70 percent. – were selected in the Vilnius region.
After the new glass sorting equipment starts operating, almost 15 thousand will be selected from mixed municipal waste throughout Lithuania. tons of glass. If waste sorting plants in other regions do not change their processes, 13 thousand tons, or 95 percent, of glass will be selected in the Vilnius region.
The waste sorting plant of the Vilnius region operated by “Energesman” processes mixed municipal waste from the entire Vilnius county, which includes 8 municipalities: the city of Vilnius and the districts of Vilnius, Trakai, Elektrėnai, Ukmergė, Švenčioni, Šalčininkai and Širvinto. During the year, the factory sorts about 220 thousand tons of waste.
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