Jan De Nul delivers ingenious Plastic and Packaging Waste sorting centre in Mons

Inauguration Val'Up
Today, in the presence of Elio Di Rupo, Walloon Minister-President, Jan De Nul Group officially inaugurated the new Val’Up Plastic and Packaging Waste sorting centre in Mons. This Design & Build contract worth 38 million Euros was awarded at the end of 2019 by Val’Up, the association of inter-municipal companies Idéa and Ipalle and private companies specialized in environmental services Veolia and Vanheede, to Consortium Jan De Nul-Vauché. The centre meets the changed Plastic and Packaging Waste sorting rules introduced in Belgium in January 2019.

Improved sorting is a condition for more efficient recycling. To enable the recycling of still more plastic waste, Val’Up built a brand new sorting centre in Mons, where 5,000 bags per hour of plastic and packaging waste can be processed and 14 different types of different types of material can be sorted.

In the form of a Design-and-Build project, Consortium Jan De Nul-Vauché offers a total package: from the design and realisation of an innovative sorting installation to the complete centre around it. The sorting installation also played the leading role during the whole building process: every change to the sorting process impacted the building plans.

The centre, which has been operational since the summer of 2021, was officially inaugurated today in the presence of Mr. Elio Di Rupo.

Dirk Van Rompaey, Head Civil Engineering Division at Jan De Nul Group: “Building the sorting centre was a first for us: we took care not only of the construction works, but also of designing the sorting installation. Our ingenious ideas and inventive solutions convinced the client of our expertise. We are particularly proud of having built a completely new sorting centre, a true example for the sector, in hardly a year’s time. We can look back positively on an instructive period with our partner Vauché and our client Val’Up.”

 

Picture: From left to right: Jacques Gobert, Chairman of IDEA - David Vanheede, CEO Vanheede Environment Group - Laurent Dupont, Chairman of Ipalle - Caroline Descamps, Managing Director of IDEA - Elio Di Rupo, Walloon Minister-President - Nathalie Halbot, Director Val'Up - Philippe Tychon, COO Recycling & Recovery Veolia - Wim Geens, CEO Fost Plus

We took care not only of the construction works, but also of designing the sorting installation. Our ingenious ideas and inventive solutions convinced the client of our expertise.

Dirk Van Rompaey

Head Civil Division at Jan De Nul Group

20 optical techniques… and more

Since 2019, sorting standards have changed in Belgium, whereby nowadays more materials can be sorted in the Plastic and Packaging Waste bag. To meet the new standards, the sorting centre had to adapt or convert. Val’Up decided to build a brand new state-of-the-art installation.

Twenty optical sorting techniques can recognize and sort different types of plastic waste. If more types of household waste are added in the future, Val’Up can just add the needed optical sorting techniques. In short, Val’Up is a 100% flexible and scalable installation.

Safer and more efficient

A major innovation in the field of Plastic and Packaging Waste sorting is the use of two huge electric cranes instead of bulldozers to load the material into the sorting process, thus ensuring greater safety on site.

In most sorting centres, bulldozers transport waste from large collector basins to the conveyor belt. The design developed by Consortium Jan De Nul-Vauché replaces these bulldozers by electric cranes on tracks above the enormous storage pits, designed and supplied by Jan De Nul. Not only is this a whole lot safer, it is also more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Four halls

In addition to the hall with the sorting machine, the centre also consists of three other halls: one for storage and two for waste processing. Here, waste is compressed into bales and then forwarded, by Fost Plus, to recycling companies.

With this innovative sorting centre, we can sort and recycle still more plastic packaging than before. The waste is sorted in Belgium and will be recycled in Belgium or in neighbouring countries. This enables us to reduce our environmental impact, to save more raw materials and, with 90 new jobs, we contribute to the local economy.

Nathalie Halbot

Val’Up Manager

Val'Up

Facts and figures about Val’Up

The building covers an area of 10,500 m². The sorting process covers three floors, up to 18 metres high.

  • Sorting of 5,000 Plastic and Packaging Waste bags per hour.
  • Sorting of 50,000 tonnes Plastic and Packaging Waste a year.
  • Handling of 14 types of different materials.
  • Offers 90 jobs.

In order to achieve this daring feat in just one year, up to 200 employees sometimes worked on the site at the same time.

Val'Up

FOR GREAT PROJECTS WE LOOK FOR GREAT TALENT!

Do you like to work on large projects such as the fire station in Dendermonde? Are you looking for a challenge in construction? Jan De Nul Group contributes to improving mobility. We realise all types of projects, roads, bridges, tunnels and locks. We are also responsible for the construction of water treatment plants, sewage systems and underground train and subway connections. We use state-of-the-art and eco-friendly techniques for the buildings that we realise. Would you like to be part of our team?

A job at Jan De Nul
10 May 2022
Civil
Sustainability
Design & Engineering
Innovation