ARN Recycling

Recycling is all about finding the right balance between what is technically feasible and the costs involved. A lot can be achieve by using technology, but always at a price. ARN Recycling strives for high-grade recycling of shredder waste at an acceptable price. You can read about how ARN Recycling achieves this in its policy statement.

In April 2011, ARN opened the PST plant in Tiel, with the aim of achieving 95% recycling of old cars in 2015. The plant processes waste from the shredder a stage further. Following optimisation of fibre processing and plastic separation, the PST plant is now able to focus fully on expanding production and the sales market. To that end, the plant is now deploying more teams with less people per team leading to higher production at lower production costs.

Following an intensive three-month training programme, a second group of operators started work in the PST plant, the first week of december. “Two teams already represent a doubling of capacity,” explained Hans van de Greef, plant director. “We aim to raise production still further, and with that in mind have already started training a third group.”

Automated discharge transport
Although the number of teams is rising, the size of each team is falling. “We recently made a number of adjustments to the system to achieve automation of the discharge transport. In the past, the finished product was carried to the storage area in trays and on forklift trucks. The process has now been automated allowing us to complete the same volume of work with less people, thereby saving money. Our teams now have six instead of eight members.”

(Latest update: 12 december 2012)