The case in summary – Several Norwegian waste companies collaborate to save the smallest residual waste, such as coffee capsules, corks, glassware, screws and food scraps. – The renovation company Ivar hires a nationwide collaborative project to take out approximately 15 percent more of the rubbish. – The project has received NOK 10 million in support from the Norwegian Research Council. – The aim is to develop new technology and methods to reuse more of the waste, which is important to meet the EU’s ambitious recycling targets. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – Even though this pile looks rather dirty and messy, there are many things in it that we could take care of, says Rudolf Meissner of the waste disposal company Ivar. Modern sorting facilities are unable to sort out the smallest waste today. But they manage to retrieve 30 percent of the residual waste that comes in larger pieces, according to Ivar. The pile of residual waste that the waste company wants to save. Photo: Hanne Høyland / news The company Ivar is running a nationwide collaborative project to save even the small bits in the residual waste. The aim is to take out approximately 15 per cent more of the rubbish. The companies involved are responsible for almost half of the waste in the country. Roaf in Lillestrøm, Ivar in Sør-Rogaland, ØAS in Fredrikstad, the Sesam project in Central Norway and the Renovation and Recycling Agency in Oslo are collaborating. A pile of rubbish with potential At Ivar’s sorting facility in Sandnes, Meissner has collected a pile of bags of residual waste. Each bag also contains some of the small pieces that cannot be saved today. They collect Meissner in a big pile, so that we can see what he means. – As you can see, we haul an incredible amount of food waste into the residual waste, he points out. In the pile we also find small pieces of plastic, many coffee capsules, pieces of glass and metal. The list is long. The collaborative project will deliver prototypes that solve the sorting challenges. – Most of the technology is already in place, so we will not reinvent the wheel. But things have to be put together in a different way, explains Meissner. Now the waste industry is challenging equipment suppliers to come up with technology that means that the sorting facility will also be able to extract something from the smallest waste. Rudolf Meissner has great faith in the project. Photo: Hanne Høyland / news The Research Council contributes money The Research Council has given the project NOK 10 million in support. – In order to be able to take care of and reuse even more of the waste we produce, we must develop new technology and new methods. Projects like this are crucial for us to be able to develop a circular economy, says Eva Falleth, area director at the Research Council with responsibility for sustainable social development. Eva Falleth, area director at the Research Council. Photo: The Norwegian Research Council This project is important for fulfilling the EU’s ambitious recycling targets, according to the waste company. Norway is challenged by the EU targets for material recycling of household waste. By 2035, 65 percent of all municipally collected waste must be reused or used for something else. Have faith in success – This is realistic, but it is not easy, says Stian G. Østvold, project engineer and shop manager at the supplier company Steco. He believes the main challenge is the food that is thrown in the household waste. It is so wet and difficult to handle. Stian G. Østvold says that there is still great potential in how to save more of the waste. Photo: Steco / MH Johannessen Østvold has worked on the problem himself and put together a proposal for a solution that will save less waste, but it has been difficult to get customers to dare to invest in it. – Therefore, I think it is particularly good that this is a preliminary project, where the technology will initially be tested. It is a sign that the waste company sees the complexity and takes this seriously, he believes. The Nature Conservation Association is positive about the work that is now being started to save more from the residual waste. At the same time, they have some objections. – It is a shame that we as consumers are not able to sort better than what we do. If it had worked better, we would have stopped using the machines as much as we do today, and perhaps avoided some of the investments, says Erik Thoring, day-to-day manager of the Nature Conservation Association Rogaland. Erik Thoring, day-to-day manager of the Nature Conservation Association Rogaland. Photo: Hanne Høyland / news – Good for the environment The new technology is important for the environment, according to Meissner. – It means an enormous amount. Everything that can be reused has a better environmental profile than what ends up in landfills, he says. The most successful of those in the hunt for new technology that saves more waste, the goal is that all the cooperative companies and all new sorting facilities in Norway have it installed. The fire that destroyed Ivar’s sorting facility means that, as of today, nothing is sorted from the residual waste in Sør-Rogaland. But when the new sorting facility is rebuilt, there will be free space to install the new technology when he is ready, according to Meissner.
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Will develop new technology – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
