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RCO Recycling Center Ostschweiz, Niederstetten
The company Recyclingcenter Ostschweiz (RCO) is becoming even more innovative with its new processing plant.
Customer / Client: RCO Recycling Center Ostschweiz AG / Video
Place: Niederstetten SG
Project: New construction of processing plant
Year of construction: 2022-2023
Branch: Recycling
A new building materials recycling and soil washing plant has been built in Niederstetten near Wil SG. The inauguration and opening of the innovative, flexible and state-of-the-art building materials recycling plant took place on 11 May 2023. RCO was founded in 2018 by the two companies Holcim Kies und Beton AG and Zürcher Kies und Transport AG. With the fully automated plant, RCO now processes contaminated construction waste and returns it to the construction materials cycle as high-quality materials.
Turnkey recycling system
Frei Fördertechnik AG from Rubigen was responsible for the planning, engineering in close cooperation with RCO, manufacture, assembly, EMSRL control and commissioning of the building materials recycling plant as a complete turnkey system. The scope of delivery also included the supply of spare and wear parts. The new plant replaces the mobile plant that has now been in operation for almost two decades.
The state-of-the-art process technology sorts, classifies and doses the various material components. "In addition, harmful and foreign substances can be efficiently removed, which ensures a significantly improved quality of the products," explains Stefan Eberhard, Delegate of the Board of Directors. The building materials produced in this way are of high quality and conform to standards. RCO processes around 200,000 tonnes of construction waste and contaminated excavated material per year. With the recyclable materials recovered from this, over 500 detached houses are built from sustainable building materials every year.
State-of-the-art technologies are unique
"The declared input material, such as concrete demolition, mixed demolition, loamy or gravelly excavation, as well as light and heavy ballast from track dismantling, is delivered by lorry or rail. The batches of between 1,000 and 10,000 tonnes are then washed," explains Hans Brugger, Operations Manager at RCO.
With two feeding lines, the materials can be optimally sorted and fed into the process. The classification and dosing of the individual material components are unique for a system with these capabilities and guarantee a customised delivery of the building material products.
The core elements of the fully automated process technology are the material feed and two innovative two-roll crushers in the primary crushing plant. Here, the material is crushed down to less than 63 mm. The material then enters the material wash. Sand and sludge are removed from the gravel in the material wash. During the subsequent de-sanding process, foreign matter (metal, wood, plastic, etc.) is removed from the gravel. The gravel is divided into 4/8, 8/16, 16/32 and 32/63 fractions using screening machines. The 0/4 sand is cleaned in the sand processing plant. All areas are connected by conveyor belts. The material storage and dosing of the gravel and sand fractions takes place in a silo system with 32 material silos, which are fed by a transfer car. Rainwater is fed in for the required washing water and treated in a cycle. The sludge water is clarified using an inclined lamella clarifier, the sludge is dewatered in a filter press and the clean water is fed back into the process. The output material: concrete, mixed demolition waste and excavated material are returned to the concrete cycle in the form of concrete. The ballast goes back into railway construction.
Sustainable construction is becoming increasingly important in order to effectively meet current challenges such as climate protection and the scarcity of resources. Once a building has been dismantled, the material used is reused instead of being disposed of. With their joint expertise, the two companies Holcim and Zürcher want to drive innovation in the recycling of building materials, close material cycles even more consistently and supply the market in Eastern Switzerland with high-quality building materials.
Scope of delivery of Frei Fördertechnik AG - complete system from a single source
- Consulting, engineering, planning, realisation, installation and commissioning
- Process plant engineering for a turnkey plant
- Material feed and primary crushing
- Conveyor belts
- Material wash
- Sewage towers
- Water and sludge treatment
- Sand preparation
- Removal of foreign matter / classification
- Pipeline construction Treatment plant
- Steel construction (without buildings)
- Control system and software
- Spare and wear parts
Andreas Lauber
Mitglied der Geschäftsleitung, Leiter Konstruktion
Telefon +41 31 720 56 46
Mobile +41 79 234 36 10
a.lauber@ffag.ch