Suez opens advanced recycling facility in Germany

Paris-based Suez has announced that it is opening an advanced recycling facility for lightweight packaging in Ölbronn, Germany. With an annual processing capacity of about 100,000 metric tons, the new recycling facility will meet German requirements by optimizing the sorting of waste streams for improved waste recovery. 

Since Jan. 1, German legislation has strongly encouraged the development of recycling activities with a recycling rate now set at 50 percent for lightweight packaging in circulation and 58.5 percent for plastics, according to stats in a news release from Suez. At the European level, legislation encourages a recycling rate of 65 percent of municipal waste by 2035. As a result of these regulations, Suez has developed a recycling facility that brings together new solutions. With a new optical sorting system, the Ölbronn facility can sort up to 14 different categories of material, including 11 types of plastic.

The annual processing capacity of 100,000 metric tons is equal to the quantity of lightweight packaging thrown away each year by more than 3 million German citizens. By optimizing the identification, separation and preparation of materials in order to improve their recovery, the recycling is more efficient. Also, in 2018, Suez reports that it sorted about 8 million tons of waste in Europe.

“We are proud to put the group’s innovation to use for our customers through this new recycling facility,” says Jean-Marc Boursier, chief operating officer and senior executive vice president of the Suez Group-Northern Europe and IWS Europe. “It demonstrates our commitment to support them in achieving their targets set by the Packing Act with a greater precision for recovery. It also contributes to the region’s development, creating 50 local jobs.”

Rita Schwarzelu¨hr-Sutter, parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, welcomes the new group. “With the new sorting plant, Suez … actively contributes to the successful implementation of the Packing Act,” she says.