PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2015

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 20 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 09/15 www.petpla.net PET resin manufacture and recycling by Kay Barton F.l.t.r. John Cullen, Ricky Lane and Joanna Ford next to the PET bottle tree We met: John T. Cullen, Director Resins Sales & Marketing; Ricky Lane, Director Public Affairs, Trade Relations & Corp. Communications; Joanna Ford, The Star Group, Sr. Vice President PR look at where we are now, we have grown more than 13 times in size”. DAK Americas‘ resin capacity currently lies at around 1.86 billion tonnes. Handling this quantity are around 1,500 members of staff who are spread over seven loca- tions, four in North America, one in Cen- tral America and two in South America. We took a look at a sample of Inte- gRex PET (iPET), developed initially by Eastman Chemical, and now manu- factured by DAK Americas for Grupo Petrotemex. The material is the com- pany’s main driver with over 540kt sales each year. In contrast to traditional PET manufacturing, the special iPET archi- tecture simplifies and eliminates several production stages in the manufactur- ing of PET Resin and saves significant energy and costs, such as omitting solids polymerisation. The idea is one part of the sustainability initiatives which DAK Americas has also embarked on at a cor- porate level, starting in 2006, focussing on ecological and economic aspects. DAK’s main PET product is branded under the Laser+family, which incorpo- rates resins for various applications in the bottles, as well as the textile sector for carpets. An extrusion moulded bottle Resin manufacturer, DAK Ameri- cas, was founded in 2001 as a subsidi- ary company of the Mexican plastics producer Alpek S.A.B. de C.V. , under Grupo Petrotemex, a subsidiary of Alpek. Alpek is in turn a branch of the (also Mexican) business conglomerate Alfa S.A.B. de C.V. The activities of DAK Americas, which has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, are spread over the PET resin, PSF fibres, TPA monomers, speciality polyester resins and recycled PET sectors. The initial location for PET resin was Fayetteville, North Carolina and this heralded the beginning of what was to become the largest PET resin manufacturer in North America. At the NPE we spoke with Mr John T. Cullen, Director Resins Sales & Marketing and Mr Ricky Lane, Director Public Affairs, Trade Relations & Corporate Communi- cations. John T. Cullen recalls: “Within two years of start-up we had already doubled the size of the company. If we DAK Americas‘ PET timeline:  2001-2007: company creation and expansion following initial acquisition of DuPont’s polyes- ter fibres, monomers and resins businesses, new PET plant constructions and acquisition of the PET divisions of Eastman Chemical in Zarate, Argentina and Cosoleacaque, Mexico  2010: joint venture with Shaw Industries in setting up Clear Path Recycling in Fayetteville, North Carolina, one of the larg- est PET recyclers for post-con- sumer waste in North America  2011: acquisition of Eastman’s remaining PET resin division in Columbia, South Carolina: acquisition of Wellman, Inc’s PET resin in Bay St. Louis, Mis- sissippi  2014: acquisition of PET recy- cling facility “CabelmaPET” in Buenos Aires, Argentina RECYCLING S P E C I A L