A powerful plastics partnership

Norway’s new national facility for sorting all types of postconsumer plastic packaging, including plastic packaging that otherwise would be incinerated, officially opened its doors Nov. 5, 2025.

The facility, Områ, spans slightly more than 3 acres and is located just outside Oslo. It is owned jointly by Norway-based companies Tomra (65 percent) and producer responsibility organization Plastretur (35 percent) and is operated by a third partner, Stena Recycling.

Tomra says the facility is “state-of-the-art” and has the capacity to process 90,000 metric tons of plastic per year, turning packaging scrap into uniform polymer fractions ready for recycling.

Tomra tells Plastics Recycling that by 2030, the facility is expected to handle about 80 percent of Norway’s plastic from the residual waste stream.

Områ uses advanced sensor-based technology to sort mixed plastic into 10 separate monofractions, including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS) and more, improving recovery and increasing recycling rates.

“Områ is more than a facility—it’s a missing link in Europe’s circular economy,” Tomra President and CEO Tove Andersen said at the time of plant’s opening.

“This facility has the capacity to receive and transform all of Norway’s household plastic packaging waste into recyclable fractions, essentially closing the loop for plastics. It is a cornerstone piece of infrastructure, providing reliable offtake for mixed waste sorting facilities, and can help recover more resources from source-separated material.”

Sorting material

Tomra says the new facility will serve as a reliable offtake solution for municipalities and waste management companies considering the introduction of automated mixed waste sorting (MWS), a crucial step for increasing recycling rates without depending solely on household source separation.

In terms of plastic processing, trucks deliver baled mixed plastic scrap to the facility, and those bales are offloaded, stored and fed onto conveyors leading to a shredder, which opens bags and loosens material. Then oversized pieces greater than 340 millimeters (13 inches) are reshredded to ensure uniform feed size.

The shredded stream continues to the production area. A drum screen divides material into a fine fraction smaller than 150 millimeters (6 inches), a midsize fraction of 150-240 mm (6-9.5 inches) and a course fraction of 240-340 mm (9.5-13 inches). Fine material is screened further through the use of star and flip-flop screens to extract plastics, Tomra says, while residual fines smaller than 15 mm (roughly half an inch) are discarded. The company says windshifters remove light plastic films before ballistic separators divide the stream into 2-D film and 3-D rigid materials.

Next, the 2-D and 3-D material streams pass through sorting lines that use near-infrared technology to identify and separate plastics by polymer type, Tomra says. The facility’s sorted output fractions include:

• • 2-D plastics such as transparent and colored low-density polyethylene, PP and mixed polyolefins film;
• • 3-D plastics such as high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, rigid PP and PET bottles and trays; as well as
• • residuals, such as low-quality or nonrecyclable mixed plastics, that are sent to incineration.

Joachim N. Amland, head of Tomra Feedstock, says the facility will employ roughly 30-40 people at full capacity, though the site is highly automated.

“Advanced sensor-based sorting systems, robotics and digital monitoring technologies handle the majority of material processing, dramatically reducing the need for manual sorting and minimizing contamination,” he says.

“However, skilled staff are essential for overseeing operations, performing quality assurance, maintaining equipment, managing system performance and addressing any nonstandard materials or process adjustments. This balanced approach ensures both efficiency and operational reliability.”

Tomra notes that by 2030 the European Union will require 55 percent of plastic packaging scrap to be collected and recycled under the forthcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Today, the company claims approximately one-third of Norway’s plastic packaging scrap is recycled, with much of the rest incinerated.

Amland says a key challenge in raising recycling rates and meeting ambitious recycled content targets has been the limited supply of high-quality, polymer-specific recycled feedstock suitable for reuse in new packaging. To that end, he says, Områ is capable of producing clean, high-purity monofractions through its sensor-based and mechanical sorting systems.

“These consistent, high-grade material streams enable recyclers and packaging manufacturers to incorporate more recycled content without compromising quality or performance,” he says. “Consequently, Områ not only supports Norway’s national recycling objectives but also positions the country to meet, and potentially exceed, forthcoming EU regulations on minimum recycled content in packaging materials.”

Amland says the overarching aim of Områ is to enable Norway to take full responsibility for managing its own plastic scrap and to play a central role in the country’s emerging national infrastructure for plastic collection and recycling.

“By doing so, the facility supports the transition towards a truly circular economy, one where plastic is kept in continuous use rather than being disposed of or incinerated,” he says. “Områ will help packaging producers meet recycled-content and other regulatory targets while fostering innovation, resource efficiency and environmental stewardship across the value chain. Ultimately, the facility aspires to set a new benchmark for sustainable plastic management in Norway and beyond.”

Setting a circular example

Since the facility’s launch, Amland says it has demonstrated the power of cross-sector partnerships when parties are aligned around a shared objective.

“The combination of Plastretur’s national reach, Tomra’s sorting and process expertise and Stena Recycling’s operational experience has proven to be a highly effective and scalable model,” he continues. “Seeing this collaboration function in practice has strengthened our confidence in the approach.

Amland says that with the right legislative framework and investment conditions, Områ’s model can extend across Europe if adapted to local contexts.

“[It can] contribute to a fundamental shift in how mixed waste and plastic circularity are addressed across the region,” he says. “This will, in fact, be essential to reach announced quotas and ambitions for a circular economy.”

While Tomra’s chief aim is to serve as a global technology provider to sorting facilities, Amland says initiatives like Områ allow the company to explore complementary investment and operating models that can help address plastics that otherwise would be lost to incineration or landfill.

“The objective is not to compete with existing operators but to contribute to building the infrastructure needed to recover more recyclable plastics,” Amland says. “By working collaboratively across the value chain, we aim to show that higher circularity rates are not only possible but achievable at scale."

The author is associate editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at cvoloschuk@gie.net.