The activity is currently high at the new sorting plant at Skurve, located on the southwest coast of Norway. According to project manager in Nordic Recycling Systems Morten Otterstad, the twentieth truck has just been offloaded with equipment ready to be installed in the plant.
The installatio
n will continue for several more weeks before commissioning and, finally, the SAT test. ‘We are currently right on schedule,’ says our on-site leader, Allan Gullborg, who is leading one of the installation teams, up to eight technicians are working with the assembly.
The plant is custom-designed for sorting plastic bottles and beverage cans from the Norwegian deposit market into very clean fractions. It will handle beverage containers collected all the way from the city of Bergen to Kristiansand. Additionally, a counting and compaction system will be installed for deposits not processed by reverse vending machines (RVMs), typically from kiosks, gas stations, hotels, etc.
There is a lot of equipment to be put together in order to make a sorting plant, so far twenty trucks has been offloaded.
Robotic Bag Opener with AI-Based Vision System
‘We are about to install the second-generation robotic bag opener system with an enhanced AI-based camera system capable of learning,’ says Otterstad. ‘There are three different types of bags entering the plant, each with varying filling levels. A state-of-the-art camera system is crucial for the accuracy and speed of the system, which will be able to empty between 5 and 7 tonnes of material per hour from the deposit bags. The empty bags are compacted in a specialized system, ready for recycling.’
Cutting table and gripping tools are about to be merged together with the robotic arms and the rest of the plant
Focus on Removing Labels
Multiple systems will be installed to remove loose labels, preventing them from contaminating the entire system, which is a common issue in similar plants. The goal is to collect and sort the labels so they can be recycled—through processes like pyrolysis—rather than being incinerated. ‘It’s important that labels are kept in the local recycling loop to avoid long-distance transport,’ Otterstad emphasizes.
Liquids and Moisture Management
‘Throughout the entire system, we focus on managing all the liquids and moisture that enter with the beverage containers,’ Otterstad explains. ‘Soda and beer residues tend to create sticky buildups on machinery, leading to time-consuming cleaning. Labels, can openers, and bottle caps often get stuck to the equipment. In this plant, we use a combination of drying and drainage to handle the liquids, keeping the system cleaner.’
State-of-the-Art Binding
After sorting, the material is baled and bound with a special polyline binding system. The polyline, commonly used in agricultural hay balers, is significantly more cost-effective per bale than traditional steel tying. ‘In fact,’ Otterstad notes, ‘our customers typically pay off their balers in about three years solely due to the cost difference between steel and polyline ties.’
The polyline coils are also much lighter, making them easier to handle manually, and they eliminate the need for large, space-consuming coil racks.
Close cooperation with the customer
Nordic Recycling System is building the sorting plant in close cooperating with the customer Infinitum. ‘They have a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge about how to run and operate a deposit system’ says Otterstad, ‘they are a forward-leaning customer that invests in the newest and most efficient systems available on the market for the sake of a cleaner environment.’ Since 1999, Infinitum have been a world leading foundation in depositing and recycling of non-refillable plastic bottles and beverage cans.
Grand Opening in November 2024
The grand opening of the plant is scheduled for November 2024.
