Circular Plastic: the innovative sorting plant designed by STADLER closes the plastic circular economy loop in Turin, Italy
Multi-utility company Iren SpA and STADLER Anlagenbau GmbH, the globally active German company specialized in the planning, production and assembly of turnkey recycling and sorting plants, have invited the international press and selected customers to visit the new Circular Plastic sorting plant. Designed and built by STADLER, it is the largest plastic sorting and storage facility in Italy. The new facility has the capacity to process approximately 100,000t mixed plastics and cans a year, closing the circular economy loop by sending up to 80% of incoming waste to recycling plants.
On September 20th, Iren and STADLER welcomed a group of select customers and international press representatives to their state-of-the-art Circular Plastic sorting plant in Turin, Italy. Hosted by the management teams of both companies, the event featured a presentation on STADLER's innovative solutions, followed by an informative tour of the facility.
Iren SpA, the leading multi-utility company in the north-west of Italy, is committed to a sustainable development model. It is one of the country’s main operators in the sectors of electricity, gas, district heating, management of integrated water and environmental services, and integrated solutions for energy efficiency. Through its environmental management company, Iren Ambiente, it plays a leading role in the circular economy by transforming waste into resources for the territory, closing the loop.
Iren has called on STADLER’s expertise for the design and installation of its Circular Plastic sorting plant – the largest in Italy. Located in Borgaro, near Turin, the new facility has an annual capacity of 100,000t. It integrates innovative solutions and advanced technologies to automatically sort 17 types of polymers and plastics, aluminium, and ferrous materials, ensuring maximum operational flexibility. This process delivers high-quality output, returning up to 80% of input materials to the recycling loop.
This is the latest project in a successful collaboration between Iren and STADLER: “We are proud to be Iren’s supplier,” says Paolo Cravedi, Senior Project Manager at STADLER. “We started with a small project in 2020, then went on to work together on Iren’s WEEE plant in Volpiano, its plastic recycling plant in Pianezza and the ReCap facility in Parma, which processes both plastics and cardboard. We also designed and built the Valterza plant in Asti, which sorts mixed plastic waste made up of mainly bottles and films.”
“We know STADLER well and we appreciate their excellent organization, high reliability, and the precision with which they execute all projects,” comments Ing. Flaviano Fracaro, Technical Director at Iren Ambiente. “Equally important for us is the quality and reliability of their products: in our experience, all installations have gone into production on schedule, with short start-up periods, and deliver excellent performance, minimizing issues and downtime.”
Innovative solutions for high quality output and recovery rates
The Circular Plastic plant starts the process by separating the incoming material into three streams: bulky, medium size and fines.
The bulky material is screened with a special model of STADLER STT5000 ballistic separator, which ensures a better separation of film, then separated in a sorting cabin.
A distinguishing feature of the plant is the line dedicated to fine material after it is extracted by a STADLER trommel screen and ballistic separators. On this line, the fines are processed through a magnet separator and eddy current system to extract all the ferrous material and aluminium, then treated with a STADLER trommel screen and two optical separators to recover small plastic components such as bottle caps and other valuables.
The medium-sized material is split into two lines, each with a STADLER STT5000 ballistic separator, to sort the 2D and 3D material, while fines are sent to the dedicated fines line. The 2D stream goes through 6 optical separators to sort films into PP, PE and bio-film.
The 3D stream is cleaned of ferrous materials, then separated with optical sorters into clear PET, blue PET, coloured PET, opaque PET and trays. Further optical sorting ensures additional automatic quality control and cleaning of these primary products. In parallel, HDPE, PS and PP fractions are sorted on a second line. The output of the two 3D lines comes together for the extraction of clean aluminium particles.
All residual materials from the 2D and 3D lines go through a second sorting process, fed into optical sorters to recover any valuable materials left, which are sent to an advanced bottle recovery line, which is another stand-out feature of the Circular Plastic plant. It is equipped with a bottle opener, a dedicated ballistic separator and a material dosing system to guarantee maximum recovery.
User-friendly, efficient operation and maintenance
STADLER’s innovative approach includes the use of technologies to facilitate operation and maintenance of the plant, as well as comfort for the operators.
An advanced load cell system has been installed for monitoring the quantity of incoming material and the quantities of the different materials stored in the bunkers ready for baling. This enables the operator in charge of the baling presses to keep track of exactly how much material is contained in each bunker and produce a precise number of bales for each product.
A new local maintenance system provides operators with a mobile panel that they can connect in each area of the plant to control all the machines in the section. Detection sensors on motors facilitate data collection and analysis for preventive machine maintenance. In addition, the entire plant can be monitored remotely with dedicated software that collects and records more than 1,000 signals at a time to generate periodic reports valuable for predictive maintenance.
The sorting cabin is equipped with an efficient air conditioning system that maintains a comfortable working environment year-round, providing 10 air changes per hour with fresh air from outside.
“Circular Plastic is a truly impressive facility with all its machines and optical sorters,” says Flaviano Fracaro. “What we appreciate most is the layout's space management, with walkways that make all the machines accessible and the entire plant easy to navigate, ensuring excellent access for maintenance. Additionally, thanks to the various management systems for operators, it is very easy and intuitive to control and manage the entire facility.”
STADLER’s holistic approach – key to the success of a complex project
The Circular Plastic project presented challenges at every stage that required STADLER’s extensive experience – from designing to ensuring effective communication across all parties involved in the implementation, all the way to final tests and commissioning to ensure the plant operates as required to deliver the desired consistent high quality.
“In the design stage, we had to study how to optimize space and distance to assemble all the machines in the building allowing for future maintenance and upgrading,” explains Paolo Cravedi. “Then, during the assembly phase, the challenge was coordinating more than 100 people from 20 companies to assemble the plant and all auxiliary systems. Finally, once the plant was assembled, we had to ensure it could manage the high incoming material flow of 20 t per hour, that the line had the mechanical capacity to process this inflow without material blockages or plant stops and deliver the very high level of quantity and purity of all outgoing products.”
“At every stage, STADLER's teamwork and organization were crucial in defining and implementing the project. We appreciated STADLER's ability to adapt the layout and design to our needs, leveraging their extensive experience in plant engineering to inform technical decisions. The construction phase coincided with a period of great difficulties in transport services with numerous delays. Despite these challenges, STADLER was able to adapt and reorganize the work, maintaining very fast construction and commissioning times. Completing such a complex plant in a short time frame is no easy task, but STADLER was highly efficient in assembling the entire line and coordinating all suppliers to ensure the project was completed safely and on time. STADLER’s excellent organization is a key factor in the success of such a project,” concludes Flaviano Fracaro.