PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2013

EDITOUR REPORTS 29 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 09/13 Creating value with powerful solutions www.krones.com February 28, 2013 Empacar Santa Cruz We met: Ivo Kuljies, proprietor Carlos Limpias , (Plant Manager), From preforms to recycling Empacar Santa Cruz’s preform production started in 2004 with an order from Coca Cola. By 2007 the company had embarked on recycling of post-consumer PET bottles. This was followed in the same year by the processing of closures and labels. The company is consid- erably older than this; it was way back in the 70s that the proprietor, Ivo Kuljis, made a start with paper process- ing. This quickly developed to encompass the processing of various hygiene products as well. However, Ivo soon sold this branch to a multi-national brand. Today his PET busi- ness is just one of his many interests; also in the owner- ship of his family are super- markets, restaurants and a bank. As far as the PET sector is concerned, recycling now represents the cornerstone. In the Santa Cruz area Empacar collects the bottles from the regional collecting points and takes them to the plant uncompressed. Bottles from the rest of Bolivia arrive in the classic pressed bale format. Initially, Empacar started with a Brazilian washing installa- tion from Seibt, with a view to producing flakes. Carlos Limpias, (Plant Manager), had to undertake a number of adaptations to the equip- ment before the flakes were of the desired quality. Last year a second washing plant was added, this time from Tec- nofer. It was tailored precisely to Carlos’s requirements. The basic components here came from Italy, some were made by the Bolivians themselves and a third group was bought in from China at a bargain price. Despite all the automation, careful preliminary sorting by hand is the secret which guar- antees clean flakes. Although PET does not represent proprietor Ivo Kuljis’s main business, he is nevertheless very proud of it, saying: “At this moment, we are recycling 60% of PET bottles in Bolivia” 360°