PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2011

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Landhausstr. 4 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Doris Fischer f ischer@hbmedia.net Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Ilona Trotter Wolfgang von Schroeter Anthony Withers MEDIA CONSULTANTS Ute Andrä andrae@hbmedia.net Miriam Kiesler kiesler@hbmedia.net phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 France, Italy, Spain, UK Elisabeth Maria Köpke phone: +49(0)6201-878925 fax: +49(0)6201-878926 koepke@hbmedia.net LAYOUT AND PREPRESS Exprim Kommunikationsdesign Matthias Gaumann | www.exprim.de READER SERVICES Kay Krüger reader@hbmedia.net WWW www.petpla.net | in dia.petpla.net PETplanet insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trade marks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 03/11 www.petpla.net EDITORIAL dear readers, EDITORIAL The recycling of plastics is a matter of increasing and justified concern amongst the general public, involving as it does the use of finite resources and the burden it places on the environment. Undoubtedly PET recycling in particular is high on the list of priorities for the beverage and packaging industry. Producers of bottled water – using thousands of tons of PET - see recycling as a major element in the sustainability of their business and their long-term survival. This concern is shared by PETplanet Insider and our commitment to the subject will be extensively demonstrated during 2011 in a series of articles examining in detail the subject of recycling – we will be looking at the pro- cess itself, the equipment involved from a number of very different angles and of course to some rPET applications. Approximately 12 million t/a of virgin PET was globally produced in 2009 by chemical industries for use in the packaging sector. Approximately 4 million t/a (bottles) were collected for re-use – mainly in markets of developed countries. Only 20% of the recycled material are used for bottle-to-bottle due to the high quality requirements, 22% for sheets, 45% for fibre, 11% for strap- ping, 2% for miscellaneous – in 2009*. Data and figures must be taken with a little pinch of salt, since markets in the emerging world like Brazil, India and China are statistically unknown quantities. Some conclusions, however, are beyond doubt: The collection of post- consumer bottles needs to be improved. This is an obligation for everone – the general public, politicians and communities. One further, important point to be mentioned is that engineers and industries must face up to the challenge of improving the processing of PET waste to produce high quality food-approved RPET . Well established companies are focusing on PET bottle collection and waste separation, and in the production of flake and pellets, as well as the conversion of RPET flakes and pellets into final products. Big name sup- pliers have developed and produced machines to convert so-called “bad” PET waste to food grade RPET for re-use. But since the incoming “bad” PET often turns out to be a “bad” surprise for the recycler, the quality of the RPET that is produced is more a result of trial and error than expected. Thus the challenge remains for all parties concerned and involved to reduce the dependence of the good quality of PET intake as well as the unpredictable quality of outgoing RPET. In this edition of PETplanet we are looking at innovative equipment to do just that. Wolfgang von Schroeter * Recycling figures taken from PCI PET Packaging