TOMRA has officially opened Områ, a national plastic sorting facility that significantly enhances Norway’s recycling infrastructure and supports broader European circular economy goals. The opening ceremony, held on 5 November 2025 in Holtskogen near Oslo, gathered around 300 guests, including municipal leaders, recyclers, and policymakers.
The facility, co-owned by TOMRA (65%) and Plastretur (35%), is equipped to process up to 90,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste annually. Using advanced sensor-based sorting technologies developed by TOMRA, Områ separates mixed plastic waste into ten distinct monofractions—including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), PET, and polystyrene—improving the quality and recyclability of post-consumer materials.
“Områ is more than a facility — it’s a missing link in Europe’s circular economy,” said Tove Andersen, President and CEO of TOMRA. “This facility has the capacity to receive and transform all of Norway’s household plastic packaging waste into recyclable fractions, essentially closing the loop for plastics.”
The facility provides a scalable solution for municipalities and waste operators adopting automated mixed waste sorting (MWS), a key step to increasing recycling rates without relying entirely on source separation.
Currently, only one-third of Norway’s plastic packaging waste is recycled, with most of the remainder incinerated. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) sets a target of 55% plastic packaging recycling by 2030—targets that Områ is positioned to help meet.
“Områ gives municipalities and the entire value chain a clear signal: there is now a scalable, high-quality route for plastic packaging,” said Karl Johan Ingvaldsen, CEO of Plastretur.
Områ represents TOMRA’s commitment to building critical infrastructure for high-quality plastic recovery and positions Norway as a model for circularity in plastics across Europe.