Notable PET bottle-to-bottle recycling results on Starlinger line with Nordson Flex Disc melt filter
The Starlinger recoStar PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line which has been installed in April 2016 in the plastics recycling facility of the Canadian water bottler Ice River Springs in Feversham, Ontario, is said to deliver excellent production results.
Due to Nordson’s BKG Flex Disc filter cartridge, which has been included for melt filtration, the production output is higher than the values guaranteed in the acceptance protocol. The purge rate has been reduced by 40%, and the melt loss due to backflushing is below the minimum values.
The Nordson BKG HiCon K-SWE-250-4K-75/RS-FC screen changer is a backflush melt filter system for continuous operation with two screen-bearing pistons and four screen cavities. With a total of approx. 4000 cm², the filtration area is 2.4 times larger as using standard screens, filtering the melt with a fineness of 56?. There is a high process stabilisation of 75% in the filtration area during screen change and backflushing.
The recoStar PET 165 HC iV+ recycling line is the second line Ice River Springs installed after purchasing the first PET recycling line from Starlinger recycling technology in 2010. The new line has a production capacity of 1,900kg/h and recycles pre-washed PET bottle flakes from curb side collection in Canada.
The bottled water producer is based in Feversham, Ontario, and has set up plants in Canada and the US. Ice River Springs is running its own PET bottle-to-bottle recycling operation, Blue Mountain Plastics in Shelburne, which is equipped with washing and recycling lines and produces bottles made of up to 100% recycled PET. In 2011, Ice River Springs received the Letter of Non-Objection for its bottles produced from rPET from the Bureau of Chemical Safety/Food Directorate, Health Canada. The company runs a vertically integrated operation that also includes preform production and bottle filling plants, which complete the system for closed loop PET bottle recycling. Ice River Springs is the only beverage company in North America to operate such a system.