A high-ranking government official in Germany took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for a plastic scrap sorting plant in August, according to a news release from Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry (BMUB).
The Aug. 14, 2017, news release says Parliamentary State Secretary Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter helped lay the foundation stone for the “innovative plant for the separation of plastics,” which will be operated by Graf Polymers GmbH in Herbolzheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
The family business will receive some €8 million ($9.4 million) from the environmental innovation program of the BMUB to help build and equip the new plant in Herbolzheim.
The plant is being designed to separate and process bulky and "difficult to recycle” plastics, including those made of polyethylene (PE) resins. The finished product will be a plastic granulate that “almost reaches the quality level of primary plastics,” says the BMUB.
Currently, many PE and PP (polypropylene) bulk materials in Germany are heading into waste-to-energy or fuels processes, according to the BMUB. Previously deployed separation technology has not always been able to recognize black and dark plastic scrap, and thus it has not been separated sufficiently. The new system has been designed to sort black plastic.
If the plant is successful it will be able to replace up to 45,000 metric tons of virgin material with the granulate produced, thus avoiding some 90,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, says the BMUB.