IKEA Holding Invests in Recycling Technology

Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) has bought ownership stakes of two recycling technology providers in Europe.

The management of Umincorp, a Dutch sorting technology provider, is convinced that the investment by Ingka Group enables them to take the next step in making their sorting solution for post-consumer mixed plastics available to a wider market while continuing developments on complementary sorting technologies.

The company is the developer and supplier of Magnetic Density Separation (MDS) based solutions, a technology originally invented by the Resources and Recycling Group of Delft University of Technology. According to the information, the technology uses ferromagnetic fluid and engineered magnets to recover post-consumer mixed plastics at higher yields and polymer purities than existing sorting technologies. “The value-creating technology is able to lower the total cost involved in the chain of plastics recycling,” the company underlined in a press release. Umincorp was established in 2012 as a sorting technology solutions developer, based on the patented Magnetic Density Separation technology, which is successfully being applied commercially on an industrial scale to different flows for different customers in a factory in the Netherlands. Umincorp is a founding partner of the Plastic Recycling Amsterdam (PRA) Joint Venture with Milieu Service Nederland.

Ingka Group owns also a minority share of 24 percent of Austrian company Next Generation Group, a developer and manufacturer of technology and equipment for the plastics recycling industry. As reported, the investment “will enable the company to further develop new technology and expand its service offering in order to better serve the plastic recycling industry”. Next Generation Group supports the supply growth of secondary raw plastic materials by offering a full range of post-consumer, post-industrial and PET recycling equipment.

Photo: ALBA Group

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