PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 36 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 06/16 www.petpla.net PET flakes for food contact compliant inline preforms in one processing step In 2011 Erema launched its open house events. Now some- thing of a tradition, the 4 th Discovery Day took place at Ans- felden, Austria on June 1, 2016, featuring some new highlights. For the first time partners of Erema such as Redwave, Unisen- sor or STF had the opportunity to show their technology to visi- tors on booths located directly in the event room. From sorters and washing plant manufacturers to downstream pro- ducers, fillers and brand owners, representatives from the entire PET recycling value chain were present at the Erema headquarters. Around 250 international guests were present at the launch of a new system: Xtreme Renew. This new system enables the direct processing of PET flakes for food contact compliant inline preforms in one processing step. For this new recycling system Erema collaborated with Sipa, the Italian PET packaging specialist. The expectations of the interested attendees were high as, with the oil price at its current low level, it could be thought that PET recycling is not profitable at the moment. “In my experience with custom- ers, the reason why a producer decides in favour of a major invest- ment in a recycling solution is based on a broad-view, entrepreneurial approach. Only those companies which are willing and able to adapt will remain in the constantly fluctuat- ing plastics industry in the long term. Thanks to the collaboration with Sipa we are making it possible for plastics producers to demonstrate the neces- sary flexibility,” says Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager for Bottle Applications at Erema. The cooperation between two signifi- cant players in the plastics industry made it possible to develop a direct processing solution which stands out through better preform quality char- acteristics when using rPET. “Two years ago,” explained Man- fred Hackl, CEO of Erema, “we started thinking about this technology and after some discussions with a number of companies found the perfect partner in Sipa. Our project was perfectly realis- able with the Extrem technology line of Sipa.” The food contact compliant melt produced by Vacurema runs when hot and thus without the otherwise usual, intermediate cooling stage in pellet production. It is then fed directly into the Xtreme production process devel- oped by Sipa to make preforms in a single step. The benefit of this direct processing, therefore, is an enor- mous boost in energy efficiency plus considerably lower thermal damage to the PET material. Enrico Gribaudo, Sipa General Manager, notes: “We are proud to have developed such a sustainable product together with Erema. Sustainable for the company and sustainable for the environment. In addition, the processing offers unrivalled benefits in logistics. Xtreme Renew not only saves space, CO 2 and energy, it also reduces costs.” Presentation of Xtreme Renew (f.l.t.r.): Gianfranco Zoppas, Chairman Sipa/Zoppas Industries; Manfred Hackl, CEO Erema; Klaus Feichtinger, CEO Erema; Marc Jacobs, CEO Marc Jacobs Consulting; Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager Application Bottle Erema; Enrico Gribaudo, General Manager Sipa RECYCLING S P E C I A L