PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2019

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 09/19 www.petpla.net 46 rPlanet Earth sets up recycling plant in California Closed-loop recycling Usually, when someone decides to launch a startup com- pany, they start small. But not Bob Daviduk and Joe Ross. When they established rPlanet Earth, they set up a company that recycles post-consumer PET containers and converts the flakes into food-grade preforms, extruded sheet, and thermo- formed packaging in a single, closed-loop process. Bob Daviduk and Joe Ross envi- sion a world without plastic waste. “It’s a very ambitious goal, but you have to aim high from day one,” explains Bob Daviduk. Plastic is a valuable resource, but only around nine per cent gets recycled world- wide. The rest lands in incinerators, landfills, or worse – the environment. Daviduk and Ross both hail from the United States, where daily consumption of single-use plastics is staggering: there’s coffee in to-go cups, disposable cutlery, and even peeled hard-boiled eggs in plastic containers. But when it comes to recycling these products, things look pretty grim: “In terms of sustainabil- ity, the US is an emerging market. We recycle one in five bottles give or take. In Europe, it’s closer to five out of ten. In Germany, it’s over 90 per cent because of the deposit,” says Daviduk. In the US, only one-fifth of the states have adopted a deposit and redemption system for PET and glass bottles and cans. But where there is a system in place, it works, as these statistics show: while the collection rate averages only about 30 per cent nationally, the ten states with bottle deposits have raised their collection rates to an average of over 70 per cent and as high as 92 per cent. Growing demand for rPET packaging But returning bottles for recycling is just one (extremely important) part of a functioning recycling process. Of course, the goal is to ultimately make the best possible use of the post-con- sumer PET and convert it back into high-quality products. And that is where rPlanet Earth comes in. The company’s two found- ers have recognised the market’s enormous potential. “I have been in the plastics industry for over twenty years. Unfortunately, most people don’t give any thought to what hap- pens to plastic once it’s been used. So, our goal is to produce plas- tic packaging for a broad array of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and then be able to take that used plastic and turn it right back into the same product,” explains Joe Ross. Bob Daviduk adds: “There is strong demand for rPET across almost every CPG company, but not enough material. The market is growing fast. A few years ago, most companies were satisfied if their preforms had 25 per cent recycled content, and now many are saying they want 100 per cent. Many brand owners see that as their contribu- tion to protecting the environment and promoting sustainability,” says Bob Daviduk. And that is why the two entrepreneurs decided to start up a company that converts used PET containers back into new food-grade packaging – an ambitious project for a start-up. Once they had secured financing, Daviduk and Ross began to look at technology and equipment in earnest. And it was purely by coincidence that rPlanet Earth found Krones: “I was looking for equipment suppliers and was just googling around when I found Krones – and the German company sounded interesting to me,” explains Daviduk. “Six years ago, Krones wasn’t really known in the PET recycling field. But my busi- ness partner Joe and his brother were both in the packaging industry and, of course, knew Krones. So I called – and was immediately put in touch with the right people; first in Neutraubling, then here in their Franklin, Wisconsin, office.” Joe Ross adds: “What started as doing some research turned into some really tight relationships with everybody from the Manual pre-sorting process in the front end Decontamination module MetaPure S