ARN unveils shredder residue facility

In the presence of hundreds of dignitaries from the Netherlands and beyond, car recycling collective Auto Recycling Nederland (ARN) has opened its long-awaited shredder residue recycling plant in the town of Tiel. The fully-automatic plant combines the latest technologies to separate shredder residue from vehicles and other waste streams into a wide array of metal, plastic, fibre and mineral fractions.
ARN’s mechanical post-shredding technology (PST) plant is a key development in the push to meet the 95% recycling target for end-of-life vehicles which has been set by the European authorities for 2015. The PST facility will process material supplied by Dutch and foreign shredder operators.

The plant harnesses advanced Volkswagen/SiCon technology and is completed by a plastic separation module from Belgium’s Galloo Plastics. At full capacity, the plant is expected to process 100 000 tonnes of residues per annum; however, in the early stages, the figure will be nearer 30 000 tonnes. The facility is composed of 50 different types of machinery. ‘Some elements need to be fine-tuned,’ says ARN’s CEO Arie de Jong, ‘so I think it will take some months before it will run at full capacity.’ Some 5000 tonnes had already been put through the system prior to the opening ceremony.

The formal opening of the plant was performed by the Netherlands’ Environment Secretary Joop Atsma, alongside Mr De Jong and ARN Recycling Director Arie de Greef. During the event, Mr De Jong called for more economic solutions for marketing the mineral and fibre fractions - the most difficult elements to extract in the separation process. ‘We need a collaborative approach from society, economy and technology; only in this way can we head for a more circular consumption society,’ he argued.

Over the coming years, the plant is expected to reduce the costs payable by vehicle dismantlers and shredder operators for disposing of their residues. It will also take over some of the manual separation work from car dismantlers.