PETpla.net Insider 06+07 / 2014

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 20 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 06+07/14 www.petpla.net Stute recycles PET in-house Green ideas bear fruit *Based on an article by Dirk Schlaipfer, Krones AG In the summer of 2013, Paderborn-based beverage and fruit preserves producer Stute was the first company in the bev- erage industry to commission a PET recycling system from Krones as an in-house solution. With the bottle-to-bottle recycling capability, Stute is processing its own PET waste and in future will be using non-returnable PET containers from its customers as well, using the decontaminated flakes as an admixture in the preform production process. PET containers, thanks to its own recycling system. The bottles col- lected in the supermarkets are pre- sorted by the discounters in their cen- tral warehouses. This predominantly transparent PET material, which accounts for the biggest proportion of the beverage distribution mix, is able to be accepted and processed by the recycling system at Stute without any elaborate sorting work beforehand. In-house recycling The new in-house recycling system is far from being the first green idea that Stute has success- fully translated into corporate reality in recent decades. Back in the mid- 1980s, Stute had begun to separate its recyclable waste, and – instead of dumping it on a landfill – to chan- nel it back into the recycling process as a valuable resource. An anaerobic sewage treatment plant built in 1997, The family firm from Paderborn, Germany, looks back on more than 130 years of existence. With an annual turnover exceeding €400mil- lion, Stute produces preserved fruit and vegetables, desserts, sweet spreads, and a wide range of soft drinks. Stute’s impressive facility includes 13 aseptic PET lines, with ratings of up to 40,000bph. Stute feeds into the recycling system normal PET waste from the preform production process and from containers that have already been in contact with products. “But that’s just part of the total volume involved in the recycling system”, explains Christoph Frankrone, Head of Purchasing Plant Engineering. The principal custom- ers for the beverages sold in non- returnable bottles are discounters with national and international distribution networks. And it is precisely for these major accounts that Stute is able to offer take-back of the non-returnable PET recycling is a win-win situation for the retail sector and for Stute.