Public company TRAGSA was charged with putting the project for upgrading the sorting plant out to tender. The new facility was required to fit within the existing building and process both Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and light packaging. The tender was awarded to STADLER for its technical know-how and project management capabilities. “A visit to STADLER’s headquarters in Altshausen, Germany, was a turning point for us and gave us great peace of mind during manufacturing because we saw first-hand the high technological level of its facilities and the quality of its staff and products. This increased our confidence in the future installation even more,” says Antonio Marzal, Managing Director, Guadalajara, Territorial Unit 4, TRAGSA Group.
Automation brings increased capacity and improved recovery rates
The new sorting plant installed by STADLER has an input capacity of 40t/h when processing MSW and 4t/h when it is working with light packaging. The process begins with trommels and an STT 5000 ballistic separator, STADLER’s all-rounder for separating household waste, mixed commercial waste and bulky waste, followed by 3 optical sorters for PET, HDPE, MIX and BRIKS, and sorters for iron and aluminium. The recovered materials are stored and baled ready for sale.
The automation of the process with the ballistic separator and optical sorters has improved the recovery rates and efficiency of the sorting plant, increasing its capacity to more than 100,000 t/year of MSW and over 12,000 t/year of light packaging material.
Timely delivery on a tight schedule
The project started with the dismantling of the existing plant, which took 3 weeks. The assembly of the new plant was completed in 10 weeks, and it was inaugurated on schedule on April 30th 2023.
This was a key requirement of the tender, as Antonio Marzal, explains: “In this project, it was very important for the start-up of the plant to take place on a specific date, and STADLER made it happen. Working with STADLER we appreciated the security that comes from being in the hands of a very serious company that guarantees compliance with the required deadlines and quality standards.”