30 n VARIABLE-SPEED DRIVES January 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com VSDs come to the rescue in Dutch recycling scheme The growing volume of packaging waste has become a significant global issue, with estimates showing that up to 91% of this material ends up in landfill or incinerators. This leads to underutilised resources and increased CO2 emissions. Some of the remaining waste contaminates the environment, contributing to plastic pollution and degraded ecosystems. It can even enter the food chain in the form of microplastics. For more than 50 years, the Norwegian company Tomra has been at the forefront of collecting used packaging materials. Its “reverse vending” technology handles the intake, sorting and processing of empty containers such as bottles and cans. The company’s “clean loop recycling” model is used to collect more than 46 billion drinks containers annually. The collected materials are recycled into new packaging, reducing the demand for raw materials, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Tomra is active across Europe, especially in countries that operate deposit systems for PET bottles, cans and glass containers. With more than 100,000 installations in 80 global markets, it is a vital player in the effort to promote sustainability and reduce packaging waste. The operation of the recycling machines can be broken down into two main components. In the first part, users deposit their empty drinks containers into a machine which scans then and transports them via a conveyor system. The technology identifies the type of packaging and calculates the amount of the deposit the customer should receive. Customers can press a button to produce a receipt for their deposit. They have the option of donating their deposit to charity. The second part of the machine, known as the backroom, is where the processing occurs. Depending on the machine, the empty packaging may be stored temporarily for transport, sorted by size and material, or compressed to save space. At its facility in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Tomra customises the backroom to suit each site’s needs. The can challenge In April 2023, Tomra encountered a significant challenge when the Dutch returns system was expanded to include cans as well as plastic bottles. The aim was to reduce “street waste” and to collect 90% When a Dutch scheme for recycling empty drinks containers was expanded to include cans as well as bottles, it posed a challenge to existing recycling machines which had been designed to handle bottles only. But by changing from single-phase to three-phase motors, and introducing VSDs, the machines were upgraded relatively easily on-site. Tomra’s recycling machines can now accept both bottles and cans
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