These are new dimensions of raw material utilization in Austria: a good year following the groundbreaking ceremony, the sorting plant in Ennshafen is running in trial operation, and regular operation will begin in the summer.
Plastic packaging comes to Ennshafen in the yellow bag or yellow bin, is transported on 2.5 kilometers of conveyor belts over six floors, passes through 57 sorting units and is pressed into bales to be picked up. The system is highly automated, with 60 employees initially operating the devices, checking and sometimes intervening manually, as was seen during the on-site inspection on Monday.
It is a joint project between the Mollner family business Bernegger, which owns 22 hectares of land in Ennshafen, Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA) and the German “Der Grüne Punkt Holding”. 65 million euros were invested, of which 18 million came as funding from the federal government.
Image: Markus Schneeberger
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Image: Markus Schneeberger
With the new system, the recycling rate for plastic can be significantly increased. The EU requirements from the Green Deal stipulate a 50 percent recycling rate in this area by the end of 2025; Austria is currently at 25 percent. It is still unclear whether this will actually be achieved. Plastic is more complicated than glass, paper and metal because there are many different types of plastic in a package and contaminants.
The facility in Ennshafen now covers half of Austria’s sorting capacity for light packaging, as the existing 15 facilities can each process 1,000 to 30,000 tons per year. In Ennshafen, however, the sorting capacity is 100,000 tons per year or 20 tons per hour. “We are setting new standards,” says Kurt Bernegger, who also works as managing director of the joint venture TriPlast. The location is ideal because of its central location, the EIA approval (environmental impact assessment), the infrastructure in the industrial area and the trimodal connection (truck, train, ship).
The sorting depth is 80 percent, while it is 58 percent in the existing systems. It is the most modern sorting plant in Europe, says ARA board member Martin Prieler: “The fight for raw materials will be decisive in the future.” The investment creates broader access to secondary raw materials for ARA license customers (companies that put packaging into circulation).