PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net 44 Extrupet increases capacity Recycling activities in South Africa Extrupet Group (Pty) Ltd, South Africa’s first and largest recycling operation for post-consumer PET bottles, has ordered a second Starlinger PET recycling line to meet the country’s growing demand for rPET. Extrupet’s Phoenix PET plant, located in Wadeville just east of Johannesburg, converts more than 2.5 million PET bottles per day into high-quality flakes and pellets. Recycling activities at Extrupet developed around the turn of the mil- lennium out of the necessity to put a stop to the landfilling of PET bottles. Having established a network of col- lectors, the company set up a state- of-the-art recycling plant and in 2014 added a Starlinger recoStar PET recy- cling line that satisfies the strict food safety requirements of many local and multinational brands. Over the past years, the demand for recycled material has been stead- ily growing, to a point where Extrupet started investigating the purchase of a second recycling machine. With the new Starlinger line, a recoStar PET 165 HC iV+ that will be delivered early next year, Extrupet intends to signifi- cantly increase the recycling capacity of its South African factory. The new line will achieve a throughput of approx. 1,900kg/h – slightly more than the first recycling line – and will be equipped with a larger solid-state polycondensa- tion unit to further increase the cleaning efficiency and set a new benchmark in terms of rPET pellet quality. Extrupet’s group director, Mr Ravi Chanrai, states that in addition to the upcoming expansion in South Africa, the group also plans to increase the capacity of its Nigerian recycling operations. The market in West Africa is highly dynamic and shows a strong demand for products made from rPET, such as PET bottles and textiles made of polyester fibres. www.starlinger.com Extrupet Group (Pty) Ltd is South Africa’s first modern recycling operation dedicated to the collection, processing, and recycling of post-consumer PET bottles. Making use of world- class PET recycling technology and principles, Extrupet set up a recycling plant in the early 2000s. The company supplies high-quality recycled products to a great number of blue chip manufacturers who view PET waste as a valuable secondary resource. This waste is recovered via a network of individuals who return discarded PET contain- ers to collection points where they receive compensation for their efforts. The Starlinger recoStar PET recycling line at Extrupet’s plant Ravi Chanrai (Extrupet) in front of PET bales that are waiting to be recycled.