TOMRA has supplied 40 sensor-separation machines to Montello based near Bergamo in Italy.
Montello will use the separators to process post-consumer plastics from the Milan and Lombardy area. It has a 350,000-square metre industrial site, including a 120,000-square metre indoor area, and employs approximately 500 people, and it features TOMRA Sorting Recycling optical sensors, which are capable of recognising the different types of plastic and reduce the need for manual sorting to a minimum.
TOMRA’s Autosort machines use spectrometry combining NIR (Near InfraRed) and VIS (Visible) sensors in a universal modular sorting system that can accurately and quickly recognise and separate a huge amount of material, according to its type and composition, to extract high-purity fractions. NIR technology is used for sorting polymers and the VIS sensors for sorting colours.
Sorting is performed by rollers, separators and suction units and, above all, by the high-resolution NIR (infrared) sensors of TOMRA's Autosort machines installed along six different lines: materials are sorted by type of polymer and, in the case of PET liquid containers, also by colour, at a speed of three metres per second. The extracted secondary raw material is then separated into: flakes of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) from beverage bottles; granules of HDPE (high-density polyethylene) from bottles for liquids such as detergents, and granules of LDPE (low-density polyethylene) and mixed polyolefins, from carrier bags and film-type packaging.
The secondary raw materials are then sold to produce new wrapping and packaging materials, objects, containers, building material, vases and other plastic items. There is also one finished product that is made by Montello: dimpled geomembrane, used as an insulating layer in the construction industry.
At this facility, 80 per cent of plastic is transformed into secondary raw materials, 20 per cent into secondary solid fuel (used as a coke substitute at cement works and blast furnaces).