Transforming waste into value

The creation of secondary raw materials is at the heart of the new circular economy. It’s a way of coping with the increasing scarcity of natural resources and rising raw materials costs. We’re innovating to accelerate recycling and offer real world solutions to our customers.
Challenges

Preserving and restoring the planet’s natural capital

Increasing the proportion of recycled materials in the production cycle
Staying one step ahead of the increasing scarcity of virgin raw materials
Generating energy savings
Our innovations

Separating glass into different colors to optimize recycling

High 5, a company in Belgium, has created a way to sort different color glass using automation technology. It’s the first plant in the world sorting incoming flows in order to separate the four colors needed to make bottles and other hollow glass packaging materials, like pots and jars. Their goal is to increase the proportion of recycled glass in the glass-making industry’s production processes.
Glass recycling-High 5 recycling plant in Belgium-SUEZ

The High 5’s plant is an ultra-modern facility pioneering glass recycling in Europe. This sorting center is an illustration of the recovery of waste to produce secondary raw materials, one of the primary principles in the circular economy.

The first to automatically separate the four colors of glass

The conventional steps of glass sorting consist of extracting the unwanted content, so that the glass can be separated from other waste and then processed. High 5 has revolutionized the final processing of glass with a technological innovation that passes the colored raw glass through a latest-generation optical sorting bank. The flow of glass is sorted into four colors: clear, green, amber and russet. Not only does this technology automatically detect and separate the four colors, but it is also capable of purifying and extracting residues, such as crystal, porcelain or vitro ceramics, which prevent glass from being reused as a raw material.

Increase the proportion of recycled glass in the production processes

The unique quality of the recycled glass produced by High 5 enables the plant’s glass-making customers to significantly increase the proportion of recycled glass in their production processes. This enables them to save natural mineral resources, energy but also to limit greenhouse gas emissions.  High 5 Recycling Group, built with SUEZ and its partner SIBELCO GREEN SOLUTIONS, the world’s leading supplier of minerals to the glass-making industry, can produce 250,000 tons or recycled glass per year.

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We’re offering a new range of recycled plastics

Plast’lab®, which was started in 2014, is based on partnerships with industries that consume plastics, to supply them with a high quality recycled plastic capable of meeting precise specifications.
SUEZ laboratory-Plast’lab-recycled plastic

With Plast'lab®, SUEZ wants to work with manufacturers to build "tailored" solutions in order to supply the recycled plastic that meets their needs.

Creating "tailored" recycled plastics

Recycled plastic creates an economic advantage for manufacturers enabling them to improve their energy efficiency and environmental performance. However, as a secondary raw material it must meet precise specifications. So we’ve created the unique Plast’lab® laboratory. Plast’lab® analyses, characterizes and tests the recycled plastics materials in order to formulate new ranges of quality plastics. The goal is to meet the needs of manufacturers (resistance to impacts, heat, etc.) and to anticipate the needs of the future.

It’s a major economic and environmental issue

In the last 50 years, the use of plastic has increased twenty-fold and certain consumer products contain more than 20 different plastic resins. Using recycled plastics cuts energy consumption by 80% to 90% compared to the production of virgin plastic. Taking action to increase the quantity and improve the quality of recycled plastic is a major goal for us.

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