Words by Smiley Team
Swedish Plastic Recycling, which is owned by a large part of the Swedish business community, is set to build the world’s largest and most modern facility for plastic recycling, called Site Zero.
The facility will be able to recycle all plastic packaging from Swedish households and make plastics circular, without releasing any carbon dioxide emissions.
Swedish Plastic Recycling is investing a record SEK 1 billion (£83m) in the state-of-the-art facility, which is planned to be completed in 2023.
The company believes that not recycling plastics is a waste of resources, as plastic enables the functioning of our modern society and should be valued as a recycled raw material.
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Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Swedish Plastic Recycling, said: “We are doubling our capacity and will be able to handle 200,000 tonnes of plastic packaging per year. This creates the conditions needed for receiving and eventually recycling all plastic packaging from Swedish households”.
The company says it will be possible to recycle ‘practically all types of plastic’. Today the facility can manage four types of plastic, but will be increased to 12 different types following the investment.
Any small parts that remain after the sorting process are separated to be sent to chemical recycling, or to become new composite products, it says.
“There is today no other facility in the world that has that capability. We are also preparing for washing and granulation of the plastic in phase two, which is planned for 2025. Then our entire plastic flow in Sweden can become circular,” added Mattias.
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Site Zero will be completely climate neutral with zero emissions. The facility is powered by renewable energy, and the small amount of plastic and other waste that cannot be recycled will be sent to energy recovery without climate emissions, so-called CCS (Carbon Capture Storage).
There are also plans to produce renewable energy by covering the building’s large flat roof with solar panels.
This investment creates the prerequisites needed for making Sweden a world leader in plastic recycling," said Mattias. "Being able to do it together with our producer customers and owners, who consist of large parts of the Swedish business community, is very inspiring.”
You can find out more about Site Zero and its plans on its website.
