For Stadler Group, a Germany-based family-owned and run manufacturer of sorting plants for the recycling and waste disposal sector, the circularity trend is opening up new opportunities: as the industry moves to respond to the changing requirements of the market, the company is ready to meet these needs.
As Willi Stadler, CEO of the Stadler Group, commented: “The circular economy is the future, the way to address the main environmental challenges of our century, such as the global waste issue. Awareness around the world that we need to change our lifestyle is growing fast. In this context, the recycling sector is set to grow significantly, also driven by increasingly stringent policies and regulations. At Stadler, we are ready: we have the know-how, the experience and the operational capacity to support the recycling industry as it evolves.”
New legislation cast plastics recycling in a leading role, leading to increasing demand for better and better sorting systems able to deliver the high purity rates of sorting output demanded by the industry, as well as more specialisation in the sorting processes and the ability to sort multiple materials flexibly. In fact, said Jürgen Berger, sales director at Stadler, specialisation will be the key to success in the coming years.
The company has already completed various projects that meet the new quality stands. It supplied one of the first sorting plants in the world specialising in film to the Integra Plastics plant in Sofia, Bulgaria. The plant boasts a capacity of 4 tonnes/hour, sorts the fractions into HDPE, PP and LDPE and by colour (transparent, blue and green).
A recent project for French recycling company Schroll Group saw the development of a tailored solution to meet the demand for sorting more fractions and greater operating flexibility. And in yet another example, Stadler designed the new sorting facility in the city of Épinal to process 80,000 tonnes of waste per year, allowing for future expansion and the addition of further fractions.
As the market changes and develops, the company continues to research and test new or improved solutions. In 2019, for example, it developed a wider version of its label remover, launched the previous year, having identified a requirement for processing a higher volume of bottles. The new version increased the capacity from 6 tonnes/hour of plastic bottles of the original machine to 9 tonnes/hour.
The circular economy is not just a European trend, says the company. Interest in the company’s offerings has grown considerably in the Latin American markets, in particular Brazil and Mexico.
In anticipation of the projected robust growth of the recycling sector over the coming years, Stadler has invested in capacity as well. In 2014 and 2016, it invested in the construction of two new production halls in Altshausen and last year inaugurated its new headquarters at the site. It is also investing in a new production hall in Slovenia in order to increase production capacity further.
In further readiness for the future, the company has partnered with Krones, a company specialised in washing and decontamination equipment. Together, the companies can now offer turnkey plants for the complete recycling process, from sorting all the way to the final output of new recycled materials.