Italian PET recycler launches new food-grade rPET brand
Starlinger – hall A6 booth 6010
With two Starlinger Recostar PET bottle-to-bottle recycling lines, Piedmont-based Dentis Recycling Italy S.r.l. expanded its product portfolio and now offers food-grade rPET pellets in addition to hot-washed PET bottle flakes.
Dentis Recycling Italy S.r.l. specialises in the recovery and recycling of PET packaging waste, being the biggest post-consumer PET bottle recycler in Italy. At its production site and group headquarters in Sant’ Albano Stura (Cuneo), the company has been producing recycled PET bottle flakes with the brand name Petalo. In 2021, the Italian recycler initiated a new project to extend its rPET production capacity and purchased two Starlinger Recostar PET 330 HC iV+ recycling systems. The new lines were commissioned in summer 2022 and are recycling used PET bottles into high-quality rPET pellets that Dentis sells under the new brand name Repeter. With a combined production capacity of 6.6 t/h, the total yearly output of the lines amounts to 50,000 t of bottle-grade rPET pellets which are provided to Italian and international brand owners.
80,000 t of PET bottles stay in the loop
Dentis reaches an important project milestone this year: The company will recycle a total of 80,000 t of post-consumer PET bottles collected through the Italian collection systems operated by Corepla and Coripet. After completion of the capacity extension in 2024, the potential recycling capacity of the Piedmont site will amount to approximately 130,000 t/a of post-consumer PET bottles.
“We want to support the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy” said Roberto Dentis, co-owner of Dentis Recycling Italy S.r.l. He stated that their partnership with Starlinger ensures that the recycled PET meets the standards of their customers in the food and beverage packaging sector. “By producing high-quality food-grade recycled PET pellets we are able to maintain a closed loop for PET bottles and contribute effectively to achieving the European recycling targets, making post-consumer plastic packaging no longer a waste to be disposed of but turning it into an important resource for top-quality packaging.”
The Repeter food-grade rPET pellets produced on the Starlinger lines are available in several colours. Besides approvals for use in food packaging from numerous big brand owners, the Starlinger PET recycling process has received positive feedback from the European Food Safety Authority Efsa as well as LNOs from the US Food and Drug Administration FDA. Dentis supplies the food-grade rPET pellets to brand owners in the food and beverage industry as well as to local plastic packaging producers.
Starlinger is offering detailed information on the Recostar recycling systems at its stand at the Fakuma trade fair.
