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Etablering af regenereringsanlæg til plastaffald  hos LEGO System A/S 

Summary and conclusions

In the spring 2000 LEGO System A/S installed a plant for sorting the plastic waste produced by the company. On a yearly basis this involves about 400 t plastic waste from the LEGO factories in Denmark and Switzerland.

The plant sorts the plastic waste by means of specific gravity sorting. Grinded plastic waste suspended in a fluid, is sorted in a separator which by means of the high centrifugal influence can separate the plastic waste into two fractions. One light and one heavy fraction. By sorting the waste twice, the plant can sort ABS (Acrylnitril-Butadien-Styren) raw material from the 20 other plastic types that the plastic waste from production of LEGO elements consists of.

After sorting the plastic waste, the sorted ABS is inked and extruded, so that the original plastic waste can be recycled in LEGO’s production on equal terms with new material.

The plant is unique, as there nowhere else in the world is a similar plant, which is able to sort and work up a specific material fraction from a mix of several plastic materials, even polluted ones.

The plant has a capacity of 800 kg/hour. As some of the material has to be sorted several times the effective capacity is about 500 kg/hour.

The plant has a pay-back time of 4 years, and the total investment is 8.6 mill. kr.

Working up technical plastic materials to a quality compatible to a new raw material has, so far, not been practised in Denmark.

The experiences that we have made with the plant during the first 6 months have shown that we are now able to sort LEGO’s plastic waste to a quality good enough to be recycled directly in the production of new LEGO elements.