RecyOuest successfully starts up ANDRITZ recycling line for agricultural plastic waste nets

The innovative recycling line featuring a unique dry-cleaning system was delivered, installed and commissioned by the international technology group ANDRITZ in August 2022. The ANDRITZ recycling line can process up to 8,000 tons of waste and produce recycling fibers for nonwoven applications and also for pellets made of waste from agricultural single-use plastic nets and twines. These pellets are then returned to the plastics industry by mixing both recycled and virgin raw materials, thus reducing the amount of virgin plastic used.

This line, inspired by the techniques from textile wastes recycling, is equipped with a unique mechanical dry-cleaning system that allows resource savings by avoiding the use of water and chemicals. This state-of-the-art ANDRITZ equipment allows RecyOuest to produce recycling fibers for nonwoven applications and also pellets for ever new eco-designed nets and twines for the agricultural sector, with the lowest possible environmental impact.

Marcela Moisson, Founder and President, RecyOuest, comments: “We are very grateful for the excellent cooperation with the R&D team from ANDRITZ, who fully supported us in their technical center. Thanks to ANDRITZ Laroche’s expertise in textile industry, we succeeded in finding the exact process required for recycling agricultural waste, which was a huge challenge.
This unique dry-cleaning process allows us to minimize our environmental impact drastically in the long run, while giving a second life to agricultural waste for which, until now, there was no recycling solution, neither in France, the leading country in the agricultural sector, nor worldwide.”

RecyOuest, based in Argentan, France, is a green economy company that handles the recycling contaminated filamentary thermoplastics such as round bale nets and twines. With its recycling process, RecyOuest is part of a circular economy approach.

Left picture: Net waste before mechanical cleaning process. Middle picture: Net waste after mechanical cleaning process from ANDRITZ. Right picture: End product – plastic pellets produced at the end of the process

ANDRITZ Group

International technology group ANDRITZ offers a broad portfolio of innovative plants, equipment, systems, services and digital solutions for a wide range of industries and end markets. ANDRITZ is a global market leader in all four of its business areas – Pulp & Paper, Metals, Hydro, and Separation. Technological leadership, global presence and sustainability are the cornerstones of the group’s strategy, which is focused on long-term profitable growth. The publicly listed group has around 27,900 employees and over 280 locations in more than 40 countries.

ANDRITZ Pulp & Paper

ANDRITZ Pulp & Paper provides sustainable technology, automation, and service solutions for the production of all types of pulp, paper, board and tissue. The technologies and services focus on maximum utilization of raw materials, increased production efficiency, lower overall operating costs as well as innovative decarbonization strategies and autonomous plant operation. Boilers for power generation, flue gas cleaning systems, various nonwoven technologies, panelboard (MDF) production systems, as well as recycling and shredding solutions for numerous waste materials also form a part of this business area. State-of-the-art IIoT technologies as part of Metris digitalization solutions complete the comprehensive product offering.