PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2015

ON SITE 42 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 07+08/15 www.petpla.net Starlinger supplies South Africa’s first B2B PET recycling plant Extrupet, the biggest PET bottle recycler in South Africa, has selected Starlinger iV+ technology for the production of PhoenixPET, an rPET brand approved for Coca-Cola products. A new bottle-to-bottle recycling line was officially inaugurated on May 11, 2015 in Extrupet’s Wadeville plant in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It produces recycled resin suitable for food-contact PET packaging and for the carbonated drink sector. The plant is the first in South Africa to use Coca-Cola-approved technology to produce bottles for carbonated soft drinks; the country is the first in the entire Continent to use recy- cled PET for Coca-Cola products. The PhoenixPET plant is equipped with recycling machinery supplied by Star- linger recycling technology. Extrupet’s Joint Managing Director, Chandru Wad- hwani, says that the project was first conceived three years ago, when its existing capacity was approaching its limit. After extensive investigation of the various technol- ogy options available, which also involved several site visits in Europe, Extrupet chose Starlinger, which has already established plants that are actively supplying the Coca-Cola system around the world. The PET recycling line, a recoSTAR PET 165 HC iV+, is designed for producing food grade recycled PET pel- lets according to FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) standards. The plant has a production capacity of 1,800 kg/h and will supply 14,000 tonnes of rPET resin per year to the PET packaging industry in South Africa and neighbour- ing countries. It will divert an additional 22,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET bottles from landfills each year and create income opportunities in PET bottle collection for an estimated 15,000 people. Extrupet’s PET recycling extruder is equipped with an in-line quality control system including an online colour spectrophotometer that constantly measures colour values in order to ensure the rPET’s uniform visual appearance. Colour variations are detected immediately; Sidel’s upgrade of the bottled water line including the fitting of ECO lamps to the blow-moulder, in support of its customer’s ongoing quest for greater sustainabil- ity and cost effectiveness. Kirin asserts that the lamps have generated substantial energy savings, as well as providing improved process stability and optimised pro- duction output. Sidel says that there is a growing need within the bev- erage industry to balance economic performance with environmental concerns; reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an integral part of the process. The heat- ing lamps used to produce preforms accounting for 90-95% of the electricity used by a blow moulder; the ECO lamps have been developed based on a con- cept that that is intended to address environmental concerns. The lamps are available as a modular upgrade of beverage production lines on both the Sidel SBO Series 1 and Series 2 blowers and are claimed to generally deliver energy savings of around 15%, with a life expectancy of 5000hrs. In some cases, installation requires no modifica- tion to either the existing oven or the blowing process. Moriyasu Uchibori, lead Customer Service Manager of Sidel, Japan, explains: “With electricity costs still rising globally and the growing drive to reduce CO 2 emissions, producers around the world are looking to optimise pro- ductivity and minimise the total cost of ownership on all their lines. Preform heating lamps are clearly an area with potential for greater energy efficiency. Sidel’s ECO lamps represent one way in which both energy and money can be saved.” Line Improvement is one part of the Sidel Services portfolio, which also includes Training, Maintenance, Spare Parts & Logistics, Line Conversions & Moulds, and Packaging. www.sidel.com