Plastic Waste : Faerch (Cirrec) and TOMRA Recycling are pioneering post-consumer food tray-to-tray recycling

Within the Faerch Group's integrated value chain, Cirrec plays a pivotal role in supporting sustainable packaging systems and reducing plastic waste. The company operates state-of-the-art recycling facilities. The Cirrec Netherlands B.V. plant in Duiven processes and recycles post-consumer plastic waste (PET). The installation of multiple TOMRA flake sorting units in 2024 significantly advanced the plant's capabilities and performance.

Cirrec's strategic investment was in response to several key market trends. The company was facing the growing challenge of sourcing enough high-quality feedstock in Europe, as well as the limitations of multi-layer clear materials in the recycling loop. New regulations also played a significant part, calling for greater recycled content and simpler tray designs.

Compared to PET bottles, recycling post-consumer PET trays presents unique and significant challenges. The input material consists of post-consumer PET waste, such as pots, tubs and trays. Unlike relatively clean bottle bales, bales of used trays contain significant and variable contamination, including residual food, other plastics, and various foreign materials. This makes achieving high purity levels exceptionally difficult, particularly once the material has been ground into flakes.

Prior to this latest investment, Cirrec operated two lines. One of the existing tray lines has been significantly upgraded and remains operational, while the other was removed in 2023 to make way for the new line, which was installed in 2024. Cirrec's primary objective in adopting TOMRA's flake systems was to overcome the challenge of separating mixed-colour and natural content, thereby ensuring a very high level of purity and enabling the material to be used for new food-grade trays.

To achieve its ambitious goals, Cirrec has partnered with TOMRA Recycling and integrated multiple advanced TOMRA flake sorting machines, including INNOSORT™ and AUTOSORT™ FLAKE units. The INNOSORT™ FLAKE is designed to sort a variety of plastic flakes by polymer and colour, including transparent and opaque materials, even from highly contaminated input streams. In contrast, the AUTOSORT™ FLAKE is a higher-performance solution specifically designed for applications requiring high purity. It can remove significant quantities of metal and foreign polymers, such as PVC and PC, as well as other materials, such as wood, silicone and rubber.

This technology is crucial for Cirrec’s multi-stage process, which involves pre-sorting, washing, drying, and finally, sophisticated flake sorting to obtain pure, clear, and coloured PET flakes. TOMRA supplied the cutting-edge machines and provided essential on-site support to ensure seamless integration and optimal performance.

Since installing the new TOMRA units, Cirrec has seen a significant reduction in contaminants in the final product. The plant now consistently produces food-grade PET flakes, which are essential for creating new food packaging.

Supported by TOMRA's technology, the new line has doubled the capacity of the previous line while delivering a higher quality output. Combined with the existing upgraded line, the plant now has a total processing capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year of post-consumer PET food trays.

Cirrec uses the sorted PET clear and PET colour tray flakes internally to produce pellets for the manufacture of new trays within the Faerch Group containing up to 70% recycled content. While the material is currently for internal consumption only, there is potential to build other new lines across Europe and further expand this circular model.

Simone Tirelli, Project Manager of the Recycling Division at Faerch (& Cirrec), comments: “We chose TOMRA’s solutions for their strong performance, reliable service and ease of management. Beyond just supplying the technology, TOMRA’s on-field support and problem-solving approach proved invaluable throughout the project. This collaboration has clearly demonstrated that high-quality, post-consumer tray-to-tray recycling is possible and happening now at scale.”

Riccardo Succi, TOMRA’s Segment Manager Plastic - Europe, adds: “With our extensive industry knowledge, we were able to support Cirrec in this groundbreaking collaboration by sorting and purifying even difficult streams. Cirrec is now creating new feedstock while preventing the downcycling of bottles into trays which is exactly the approach needed to truly future proof our industry. These distinct recycling streams must be maintained to ensure that bottles remain in their dedicated loop and that trays are consistently recycled back into new trays. 

“This pioneering project is setting a new industry standard, truly changing how PET food trays are recycled and speeding up the move towards a fully circular economy for food packaging. It’s also a strong example of how cutting-edge technology can support plant owners in discovering new business opportunities – whatever the market conditions."