PETpla.net Insider 11+12 / 2017

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 11+12/17 www.petpla.net 20 Emptying and compacting of containers Intelligent recycling in passenger aviation LSG First Catering, the Swiss airline catering specialist from Bassersdorf, near Zurich airport, produces around 19,000 meals and sandwiches for the aviation industry every day. Its 230 employees are totally engaged enabling airlines such as Edel- weiss Air, Helvetic Airways, Swiss International, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, American Airlines and United Airlines to provide their passengers with food and drinks. Every piece of packaging carried onto the plane is returned after the flight and must be disposed of. Owing to the high cost of disposal and the lack of options for recycling the materials themselves, the com- pany decided to acquire a “Liquidrainer” dewatering press and a semi-automatic “Autoloadbaler” baling press from German recy- cling plant manufacturer Strautmann Umwelttechnik, based in Glandorf. LSG now empties all full and half-full bottles that come back from the airport, compacts 350kg of packaging per day for baling and, as a result, now saves around US$41,000 a year. “We put the liquids directly into the wastewater disposal and from there into the water treatment plant,” Opera- tions Manager Mr Marcel Schneider explains. “Before the new disposal process was installed, everything was cleaned at the wastewater treat- ment plant.” The empty PET bottles, together with glass bottles, are col- lected by Kibag Entsorgungstech- nik AG, a waste disposal company located just two kilometres from the LSG facility, and sent for recycling. According to Mr Schneider, LSG First Catering itself produces very little waste on site. But everything which arrives and is required for production of the meals is packaged and must be unpacked. This outer packaging is collected, pressed into bales with the semi-automatic baling press, and disposed of. Around 127t of cardboard packaging is collected in this way and sent for recycling each year. In the case of PET, LSG used to simply throw the bottles – including their liquid contents – into the residual waste. This turned out to be a signifi- cant expense, and it meant that the company could not send the PET bot- tles for recycling. After switching to the Strautmann equipment, the caterer now disposes of its waste more effi- ciently and in a more environmentally friendly manner, and the raw materials can be sent for appropriate recycling. Thanks to the massive reduction in the weight of the K1 waste (catering and food waste from means of trans- port operating internationally) and the additional remuneration for the cardboard bales, the company saves around US $41,000 per year. www.strautmann-umwelt.de All of the food and drinks pre- pared at the Bas- sendorf site are taken directly onto the aeroplanes at Zurich airport. When the planes are unloaded, every single item of packaging, from dishes through chewing gum, to full and empty PET bottles, is removed. The trolleys are restocked and eve- rything that needs to be, is disposed of. All PET bottles are collected in plastic boxes and then tipped into the Liquidrainer, which empties the bottles completely and shoots the empty outer packaging into a large box. Marcel Schneider, Operations Manager LSG First Catering RECYCLING S P E C I A L