PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2017

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 05/17 www.petpla.net 23 Tour Sponsors: Post-consumer PET bottles without labels or stickers by Alexander Büchler PT. Production Recycling, Karawang, Indonesia. February 16, 2017 We met: Susan Hueber, Director Joseph Soesilo, General Manager In emerging nations, recycling mostly means collecting by hand – which is also the case in Indonesia. We visited PT. Production Recycling Indonesia ( PT. PRI ) in Karawang and were able to learn that collecting by hand leads to an extremely high proportion of PET in waste bales and simplifies the processing of bottles. In Indonesia, people throw their rubbish onto the side of the road. The rain will wash it away or someone will remove it. Whilst a few years ago, the rain was doing most of the work, today, people are finding out that there is money hidden amongst the rubbish. This provides sufficient income espe- cially for those in the population who are at the lower end of the earnings scale. So alongside certain materi- als, used PET bottles are collected from the rubbish by hand and brought to buyers. They press the bottles into bales and sell them to recycling plants such as PT. Production Recycling Indo- nesia in Karawang. Because they are collected by hand, the bales contain a high percentage of PET bottles which have been well sorted. Joseph Soesilo, Managing Director at PT. PRI, has also instructed buyers to remove labels and caps from the bottles before pressing them into bales. A novelty for waste bales. Thus PT. PRI can get up to 90% PET flakes out of a bale. Despite having been very well sorted, a manual sifting for incorrect materials takes place at the start, which looks for PVC in particular. After shredding, the PET is put into a bath of hot alkaline solution twice to completely remove the sticky remains of labels in particular. After being washed in cold water and dried, the flake sorters start working and pick out everything that has sneaked through in the processing. What remains is sorted flakes with levels of purity which are suitable for foils, sheets and fibre production. Production is rare in the 50ppm sector – flakes for bottle- to-bottle recycling. “Our clients mostly come from the fibre and sheet sector and we have exactly the right prod- ucts for them,” said Susan Hueber, Director at PT. PRI. Currently, light blue is very popular; this composition is in great demand in China in particu- lar. However, PT. PRI does not just deliver to China; alongside Asia, they also deliver to the rest of the world. To prevent all the washing water from making its way into the water cycle, PT. PRI processes its water. As a closed cycle, only a small amount of fresh water has to be added. LPG heats the water for washing. Founded in 2011, PT. PRI is considering the possibility of installing a second line in the near future, one that is bigger than the current line. Post-consumer bot- tles are also available. It seems that PT. PRI can successfully brace itself for the pricing pressure of the cur- rently cheap PET virgin material. “We need to connect with our sup- pliers; it’s a kind of marriage”, said Susan speaking of the secret of her success. “If a partner does not have a bale press machine, we install one, which makes a really good connec- tion.” That way, PT. PRI receives a constant stream of PET bottles which have been very well sorted. www.pt-pri.com It’s hard to believe, but the bales arrive at the plant with the labels and caps of the bottles removed. Both run the business: Susan Hueber, Director and Joseph Soesilo, Managing Director Go with the flow. South East Asia Road Show