Innovative technology for cullet treatment

GEOLAND Consulting International Sp. z o.o.
od 1991 roku partner Presspubliki - wydawcy dziennika "RZECZPOSPOLITA"

Infrastruktura - Środowisko - Energia
Dodatek promocyjno-reklamowy do "RZECZPOSPOLITEJ".
22 czerwca 2006 r.

Innovative technology for cullet treatment

Statement by Adam Krynicki, Ph.D., owner of Krynicki Recykling Sp. z o.o.

With own logistics and a network of facilities, Krynicki Recylking collects glass packaging waste from over 450 suppliers throughout Poland. Unfortunately, due to still insufficient ecological awareness in our society the quality of cullet received from selective waste collection is very low. This concerns also glass waste disposed in two-container systems, especially colourless glass waste, since around 30% of its total weight is mixed with other colours. This does not mean, however, that selective glass waste collection does not make sense, quite on the contrary. Similarly to the Forum for Glass Packaging, we are promoting a two-container selective collection of glass packaging waste. However, given low quality of glass packaging waste, we need to continuously improve our installations to make them capable of recycling even the most contaminated glass.

In order to meet market challenges, in 2005 we have completed a project entitled "Increase of recycling of glass packaging waste recovered with the use of optoelectronic sorters for cleaning and colour separation of packaging glass waste". The programme was co-financed from EcoFund, the Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Warsaw and Bank Ochrony Środowiska SA. Thanks to innovative technology, new sorting facilities, which we have purchased, allow us to both remove contaminants from cullet and sort it into various colours.

This investment will bring economic and ecological benefits not only to our company but also to the whole Polish market for glass packaging waste recovery. It is also closely related to the continuous tightening of standards for recycled glass by glassworks which increases in turn cullet share in the batch material for glass tank furnaces. These standards are nearly unachievable in the traditional mechanical-manual cullet treatment systems, of course given the industrial quantities of packaging glass.

We are cooperating with municipalities, cities, municipal enterprises, industrial companies, landfills, sorting facilities, leading recycling companies in Poland as well as with financial institutions such as EcoFund, Bank Ochrony Środowiska SA, Environmental Protection Funds. I would like to thank them all for the cooperation and express hopes for continuous joint work in the future.

All mentioned activities and plans of Krynicki Recykling are done with one aim in mind which is to develop the national glass waste collection system.