PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2017

PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 05/17 www.petpla.net 43 TRADE SHOW REVIEW cling landscape is to be affected by new legislation – in particular the enhanced manufacturer responsibil- ity – and how the industry should react. “Producers of packaging should understand that they have respon- sibility,” states Melanevskaya. As a concrete example, he mentioned the establishment of independent infra- structure as a strategy for stimulat- ing the recycling market, as well as encouraging young people in par- ticular to be aware of recycling, not to mention exerting pressure on the bottle manufacturing industry to place the focus of manufacturing on bottles that are easy to recycle. Technologies Various company representatives presented solutions in the recycling field. Danil Polyakov, Head of Sales von Polymetrix presented their FDA and EFSA compatible process for the manufacturing of bottle-grade rPET. Post-consumer PET bottles undergo grinding, surface cleaning and sort- ing in PET wash plants. The resulting PET flakes are the input material for the Polymetrix bottle-to-bottle rPET process. The process consists of an initial extrusion step with melt degas- sing and melt filtration and is followed by pelletising and a decontamination step in an SSP under nitrogen. A fea- ture of this process is the reduced use of detergents and water. Procedures for the further pro- cessing of PET bottles are also offered by Viscotec, part of the Starlinger Group. Representative Gerhard Ossberger explained how post-consumer recycled PET flakes can be both dried and decontami- nated using the Decon decontamina- tion dryer in accordance with EFSA and FDA standards prior to the extru- sion process. Their Viscosheet line is designed for the production of 100% food grade PET sheet. It can process up to 100% of undried material with minimised IV decrease. Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager Erema then presented the company’s Vacurema System. The patented pre-treatment of PET flakes at raised tempera- ture and in high vacuum before the extrusion process removes moisture and migration materials from the feedstock. Thanks to the vacuum treatment, stable IV values can be achieved even in the case of varying moisture levels and different IV values in the input material. To counteract loss of material in the recycling process, Erema fol- lows the zero waste approach. In recent times, PET rejects from metal detection have also been considered through improved filtration as well as fines, which were previously thrown away as material loss from the wash- ing centrifuge. The PET proportion here makes up around 25% – accord- PROCESS PILOT ® makes producing a better PET bottle as easy as 2 3 1 MEASURE CONTROL OPTIMIZE every bottle for changes in material distribution process variation, inside the blowmolder material utilization and orientation to achieve maximum bottle performance CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN MORE! AGRINTL.COM | +1.724.482.2163 | SALES@AGRINTL.COM see us at Booth A4-336 ing to Wöss an important starting point for the recycler to establish him- self more reasonably in the economi- cally difficult rPET segment. Conclusion The day confirmed what Sergey Stolyarov, Managing Director of the Creon Group had said in his opening address: That in terms of recycling, Russia is “not in the leading group”. The lack of an infrastructure of collec- tion systems - many conference par- ticipants saw a government obligation here - hampers recycling efforts and makes recyclate more expensive. The economically difficult environment cur- rently does little to stimulate the indus- try to invest in modern recycling sys- tems. But the page can turn quickly with far-reaching legislation and suit- able currency situations, which could make the recycling market in Russia very attractive - assuming that con- sumers play their part. www.creonenergy.ru