Plastics recycling from RDF

With the EU’s Circular Economy Package and EU Pledge on recycled content steps have been taken to start the change. And UK’s Defra has also announced change. The EPR-fees currently only cover 10% of the cost and should cover the full cost. When the full cost is compensated new opportunities will arise. How will the market react? Will RDF production centers in the UK be transformed into light MBT’s with NIRs to recover plastics and lower the calorific value? Or will RDF producers agree with the RDF processors to take out the plastics before using the rest for EfW?

Attero runs the largest MBT in the world with an annual capacity of 800,000 tonnes. Besides a very efficient operation Attero is also the only MBT in the Netherlands who is allowed by the Dutch EPR scheme to jointly process Dutch and imported waste on the same production lines. By a firm and frequently audited protocol the right allocation of recycling is taking place. But Attero does not only take out the plastics in a MBT. We also sort the plastics into mono streams, using the German DKR specifications. The largest plastic packaging stream (the post-consumer film) is washed, flaked and granulated right after the sorting line. Other streams such as PE and PP are recycled into flakes on a different Attero location. So in case the EPR fees are raised to interesting levels make sure you have a talk with Attero to recycle plastics for you. Together we can close the loop!