Machinex continues to make its mark in the UK

Quebec-based Machinex solidified its presence in the UK, in 2011, with its latest material recovery facility opening, for the Finnish-owned paper manufacturing giant UPM Kymmene. Located in Shotton, North Wales, the new single-stream MRF has been built adjacent to UPM’s paper mill in order to feed the plant recovered paper.  

According to Machinex, their sorting system, at a total cost of 14 million Canadian dollars (£9 million), is designed to process over 270,000 tonnes a year of recyclables from commingle collected materials: paper, cartons, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal containers. 

In order to complement the existing paper-making operations at its Shotton site, which presently processes 640,000 tons of waste paper into newsprint each year, UPM says they will derive 20 percent of needed fibres from the new MRF. The recovered fibres are sent from the MRF to the paper mill through a tunnel connecting two buildings.

“UPM appointed Machinex for the project because of our expert capability, flexibility, innovative design – but mostly, because we took the time to discuss their real requirements. We brought them a different approach, outside the box,” said Pierre Paré, CEO of Machinex Group.

UPM, who is the largest manufacturer of 100 percent recycled newsprint in the UK, decided to move into the MRF sector to secure a long term supply of high quality recovered paper feedstock for their paper mill. According to UPM, their Shotton facility will result in demonstrating to the paper industry that it is possible to obtain 99-percent fibre purity from commingled collection, with a high tonnage and minimum number of employees.

“We visited Machinex reference sites, which were delivering close to UPM expectations for paper recovery, using traditional mechanical techniques,” says David Green, Technical Director at UPM Shotton.

“We were therefore confident that, with the addition of optical sorting equipment, they would be able to achieve 90-percent recovery of paper and the required 99-percent purity rates for the recovered fibre.”

UPM says Machinex has risen to the challenge brilliantly by delivering a flexible and highly automated sorting system.

“Because the paper feedstock was a very important element for UPM, we  proposed two independent fibre sorting lines which will allow maintenance work on one of the two lines without stopping production,” explains Jonathan Ménard, Project Director at Machinex.

“This concept can also be applied to the container sorting line should it require maintenance. The fibre line can still operate and feed the paper mill.”

“The glass has to be removed from the system at the beginning because of its abrasive properties,” adds Ménard. 

Machinex says the entire Shotton system is built with the latest recycling technology and equipment, including TiTECH optical sorting units for fibres and containers, a plastic film air capture system, magnetic and disc screen separators, a number of conveyors, and other equipment designed and built by Machinex.

“We often see the term ‛state-of-the-art’, but we think we have the best solution, both in terms of construction and in how it is configured. It is the most modern equipment and the best configured,” says Craig Robinson, head of recovered paper sourcing at UPM.

The UPM Shotton MRF, started operation in April 2011, and is the second of three major Machinex projects to go online in the UK in 2011, following the Western Riverside MRF facility opened by Cory Environmental in London, in March. The third Machinex MRF, built in 2011 in the UK is in Kettering, Northamptonshire, near London.

In the early 1980s, Machinex says they became the first in Canada to design machinery specifically for material recycling facilities. Today, according to the company, they have designed and installed over 200 turnkey facilities in partnership with leading MRFs in Canada, the United States and Europe.