PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2013

EDITOURS REPORTS 18 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 09/13 www.petpla.net Sven Broderson started using the lightweight 1881 for the first time in February 2010. The blow moulding equip- ment for this was manufactured in Panama. They even ven- tured to have a go at the neck for the 3l bottle which was still awaiting a final decision at the time. Today some 80% of the total preform production has been converted. A special closure is also running on the 1881 for still waters. This has not yet been introduced in this region. However, because still water is growing faster than CSD, the advent of proprietary water closures is surely only a matter of time. The 500t Hypet from Husky produce preforms for 0.33l bottles on 144-cavity moulds Sven Broderson manufactures all preforms centrally at the main plant. 15 Husky systems are working on this round the clock. The machinery installed goes up to 500t. There are 144-cavity moulds running on the two largest systems. Piovan is the material supplier. Before the mate- rial arrives in the dryer there are two dispensing systems located upstream of each system. “This allows us to process any mixing ratio of virgin and regranulate“, is his comment. Unfortunately, Peruvian legislation still does not permit regranulate in bottles which means that preforms with a proportion of recycled material only go abroad. But it is confidently expected that even Peru’s FDA will soon permit authorised material in beverages bottles. The Sipa blower SFR 12 EVO is specially designed for the pro- duction of hot fill bottles Which brings us to Sven Broderson’s new baby - bottle to bottle recycling. Until two years ago in Peru all bottles were compressed and shipped off to China by a very wide range of privately organised (and sometimes unregulated) PET collectors. Now, however, the main plant contains the first recycling system to be installed in northern and west- ern Latin America - and this is still the largest, even today. Producing at the rate of around 1t/h, they generate over 10,000t of FDA inspected regranulate. With a total annual consumption of more than 60,000t, this represents a con- siderable proportion. In addition to obtaining the permit, they have also had to work hard on the collecting side. Bearing in mind that collection has tended up to now to be in the hands of unregulated organisations, Sven Broder- son feels that it is important that the collecting operations should, among other things, pay social security contribu- tions, not employ child labour and, of course, observe safety regulations. Although this has made the collection process more expensive, it has despite this become more reliable. Smaller partners supply up to 40t/a whilst larger companies collect up to 400t/a for SMI. “The smaller the collecting operation, the cleaner and better sorted the material will be. However, the most impor- tant thing about recycling is washing“, says Broderson. The Tecnofer washing plant therefore features three consecu- tive washes and, even at the end, there will still be minute remains of labels coming out of the plant. The Gatorade bottle labels cause particular problems. They are made from PTG, a plastic that has similar characteristics to PET. As a result, the label cannot be discharged in the normal way via the sink-or-swim fraction. It has proved necessary to install a cyclone in addition. Even in the recycling hall maximum cleanliness and tidiness predominates, as is the case everywhere in the plant. The Starlinger plant produces 1t/h virgin material. The flakes, now clean and uniform in colour, are then fed to the Starlinger plant which will turn them into FDA material from them. As the flakes come straight out of the washing plant, no de-dusting is required. At the heart of this process is the Recostar 165 extruder which has a through- put of 1t/h. The material spends six hours in the vacuum reactor before subsequently exiting the plant as finished bottle material. The material is accommodated in 70t silos. SMI is not willing to address the topic of closures; it sees itself as a producer of preforms and bottles. www.smi.com.pe www.clearpet.com.pe 360° 360° 360°