4 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT EcoCentral “We process between 150 tonnes and 200 tonnes per day of recyclable materials and can now process in one shift what the old plant was processing in two shifts per day when it was slowed down to meet the new standard.” Recycling facility upgrade The $16.8m investment includes eight hi-tech optical sorters that sort two-dimensional from three-dimensional material. Richard Loader Christchurch CCTO (Council Owned Trading Organisation) EcoCentral is in the commissioning phase of its upgraded EcoSort materials recycling facility (MRF) that is designed to meet the new export quality requirement for recycled materials. The materials processed by EcoSort come from the yellow curbside recycling bins throughout the Canterbury region. The $16.8 million investment includes eight hi-tech optical sorters from France, ballistic screens that sort two-dimensional from three-dimensional material, along with improved processes. The new MRF was designed, supplied and installed by ABP (Australian Bale Press), who are currently leading the commissioning phase, which is expected to be completed by Mid-January. Craig Downie, EcoCentral’s Chief Executive says the implementation project commenced March this year, and was specifically designed to meet or exceed the 0.5% global quality requirement established in 2018, and to future proof the recycling processing requirements for Canterbury. “Operational continuity was a project requirement during the upgrade to avoid landfilling. The final two stages required the MRF to be shut down for a month enabling ‘open heart’ surgery. “The middle of the MRF had to be removed, with all recycling being stored off-site, which is now being brought back and processed through the upgraded plant. “We process between 150 tonnes and 200 tonnes per day of recyclable materials and can now process in one shift what the old plant was processing in two shifts per day when it was slowed down to meet the new standard. The backlog is still being processed, but we will be back to one shift in January.” The key driver for the project was a significant shift in the global quality standard, primarily of paper-based recycling that was being exported. In 2018, China, which was the majority importer of recycled materials globally, changed its rules by lifting the quality standard of recycling to minimise wastage and environmental damage. They would no longer take recycled material that had more than 0.5% waste contamination. Previously the standard was up to 10% waste contamination. That change also influenced the global market. A MRF is designed to meet the global market by sorting co-mingled recycling into base commodities. So carboard gets extracted, paper gets extracted, different types of plastic get extracted, as do aluminium and glass. Those materials are then baled and exported, or processed locally. Contamination includes any material inconsistent with what the recycled material is supposed to be — wood for example. “When MRF’s were first built they were designed to meet the global standard of the day, which was 10% contamination,” explains Craig. “So, the MRFs were no longer fit for purpose and that forced global change pretty quickly across the world. When other countries could no longer export to China, they started to congest the markets that we exported to including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and then those markets lifted their quality standards as well.” In 2019, as an interim measure to enable compliance before a more automated and sophisticated system could be implemented, EcoCentral applied a slower and more manual process at its EcoSort MRF. This also relied on increased human input and was very expensive to maintain. “The new system has increased the throughput rate with capablity to automatically meet the new quality standard, without additional labour. Paper and cardboard is exported but as much as possible, we try to sell our plastic recycled materials to domestic processors. Any non-compliant plastics go to waste, but the volumes are quite low.” www.rubix.nz Proud to be part of the team delivering EcoCentral's upgraded recycling facilities Providing quality workmanship with a focus on design/build and service work. 021 980 635 dan@fixelectrical.co.nz Christchurch
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=