Sorting technology specialist Tomra (Asker, Norway; www.tomra.com) has signed a joint venture agreement with its compatriot non-profit producer responsibility organisation Plastretur (www.plastretur.no) for what both say will be the first dedicated plastic packaging sorting plant in Norway.

The EUR 50 mn deal has been in the works since 2020, with the aim to process Norway’s plastic packaging waste, which is currently being sent to Central Europe.

Once it becomes operational in the first quarter of 2025, the plant is expected to handle 90,000 t/y of municipal-sourced, separated, and mechanically recovered mixed plastics waste. This is to be divided into seven types of plastics and then processed into high-quality feedstock that will be used to produce new packaging and other high-quality products.

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“As part of the new venture, Plastretur will continue to take responsibility for sourcing plastic packaging waste from Norwegian municipalities, trade and industry, and deliver this to the plant as input,” the partners said in a statement. “Tomra will be responsible for grading the fractions based on type and selling the plastic output.”

Joachim Amland, Tomra’s senior vice president of feedstock, said, “We are recovering material that would have been lost to incineration, and using our existing technology, providing it to the market at very high quality, which has been missing until now.”