PETpla.net Insider 06+07 / 2014

ON SITE 51 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 06+07/14 www.petpla.net Sorting and pre-washing system Amut Recycling Division has successfully started up a new Mini PRF at Wellman’s in Johnsonville, South Carolina, USA with a capacity of 6-7t/h (14,000lbs/h). The recyclers‘ complaint about the increasing worsening of the quality of material to be treated was the incentive for Amut Recycling Division to design a “pre-treatment” that completes the wide range of machinery for post-consumer PET valorisation and this new upfront system to feed PET bottles wash lines is the result. The new technology in Wellman’s installation is said to overcome the lower quality of Comingle Bales and to improve the efficiency and yield of the recycling plants. The Mini PRF system includes a pre-selection of the bales, to eliminate all of the pollutant materials in a dry phase and have just the clean bottle stream go through the sorting and pre-washing equipment, without those foreign materials that create inefficiency, more waste and higher maintenance costs. The main equipment to perform this task is the Amut “Elliptical Ballistic Separator”. The function of this machine is to mechanically select the bottles stream after the Bale Breakers and eliminate the fines and the 2D pollutants such as carton board, paper and packaging films. A de-labeller / pre-wash system will prepare the bottles for the following NIR sorters line. According to the company, the quality of returned bottles is worsening: some years ago, the contamination of mate- rial at the inlet of the washing lines was about 20-25%, today it is more than 40%. Reasons for this are, amongst many others, the growing diffusion of PET as material also used for other liquids, different from beverages; the packaging development to make beverages and various bottled liquids more attractive; new conservation and protection techniques for beverages and food such as multi-layer barriers or caps safety seals, which are often at odds with recycling require- ments; plants, that are not suitable for the new and more challenging stream quality; the inconvenience faced by MRF and PRF companies in selecting and rejecting good PET simply because it is contaminated by sleeve labels or other elements necessary for packaging. www.amut.it Your Cap. Your Signature. We inspect it. www.intravis.com