Polymeren Recycling Plant LIFE Aganfoils

AGANFOILS: Upcycling post-consumer film into high quality LDPE granulate

Attero invested EUR 30 million in the construction of the Polymers Recycling Plant at the Wijster site. This plant reprocesses plastic bags and other films from household waste into high-quality regranulate for recycling. Attero thus takes an important step in closing the cycle of this type of plastic (LDPE). The plant was opened on 15 March 2019 by European Commission Vice-President Mr Frans Timmermans. For this innovative approach with Aganfoils, Attero received a LIFE grant from Europe.

Projectname: AGANFOILS – As Good as New Foils. Projectnumber: LIFE15ENV/NL/000429.

AGANFOILS by Attero

Attero sorts foils from the domestic residual waste and PMD-waste (Plastic Metal Beverage Cartons) by separation of the plastics, in an integrated separation plant in the Energy from Waste plant. The plastics, are sorted into mono-streams, together with MSW (Municipal Solid Waste), by the separation plant for plastics. The LDPE-foils from domestic waste collection are separated in this plant by means of mechanical technics, windshifters and infra-red-detection.

With the support of European LIFE programme, Attero has built a factory where these foils from domestic waste collection, with help of durable produced steam and electricity from the Energy from Waste Plant are shredded, sorted and washed hot and cold, to be recycled into LDPE granulate.

This regranulate can replace virgin fossil plastic raw materials. Because of this the regranulate-granules, produced by Attero, can offer an important contribution to the circular chain of plastics. By reusing the plastics, we limit the use of new plastics in the chain and we limit the impact on the environment.

Results

The most important results from the project, with adjusted results on basis of the latest insights, are represented in the table below:

In the process of achieving the results presented above, several challenges had to be overcome. In practice the level of dirt which is attached to the used foils, was more than first assumed. Also the disturbance of "non-LDPE-plastics" that run along in the feedstock, challenged Attero in relation to the quality of the regranulate. By starting to work with 4 times more washing water, adding a separation between the different qualities of water and adjusting the water purification to the amount of dirt, that builds up in the washing water, we managed to get the quality of the regranulate on spec. Also the design capacity of the PRP we have reached that way. For more information on this subject, you can click on to "Project Results". Because of the higher degree of contamination, the yield of the amount of regranulate is lower than assumed, but the quality and applicability of the regranulate is high. With that the importance of high quality reuse of the regranulate is achieved and the PRP is an excellent example of making up the reuse of a low quality raw material to a high quality plastic in the circular economy.

Currently the plant is operating in a stable manner with respect to input, output and quality. The commercial interest in the product is growing, the high quality applications are ongoing developed with our buyers and the quality of the applications is high.