PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2020

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 06/20 www.petpla.net 26 Bottle-to-bottle recycling of light barrier white opaque PET White, opaque, recyclable Bottles in opaque PET are increasingly replacing other material grades, especially in mar- kets such as dairy and other sectors where demand is increasing. Thus far, a main concern was that the white opaque PET would lose one of the most important characteristics of PET, recyclability, but Spanish company Novapet is demonstrating that white opaque monolayer bottles can be separated and recycled into new bottles again. Recycling Special In addition to producing standard bottle grade PET, Novapet has for many years also been a manufacturer of speciality PET resins. The company is intending to incorporate the advan- tages of this material for new markets and, as a signatory of The New Plas- tics Economy Global Commitment, all the various grades must be 100% recyclable in practice. The company has significant experience in handling mechanical recycling projects, and has invested heavily in rPET produc- tion, using the material to manufacture preforms. Thanks to this experience, Novapet has been able to develop a recycling process for white opaque PET bottles. ODR - a growing market The use of monolayer white opaque PET bottles is growing rapidly because it provides the functionality and protection from light that UHT milk requires, an advantage other packag- ing options do not offer. Furthermore, it has the potential to achieve the sus- tainability aspects demanded by con- sumers and required by regulations. According to Plastics Europe Annual report (2018), the EU ODR market is 150 k tons, roughly 3-5% of total EU production. Around 6% of the PET recovered material in the EU16, a significant proportion, is not properly recycled. The reason is that there were limited end-use applica- tions to absorb this material. There is also concern as regards the clear/light blue stream, because of the inorganic opacifiers included which reduce the yield. In order to demonstrate the feasibil- ity and viability of the monolayer white PET recycling, Novapet has created, for the first time, a dedicated recycling stream of this material in a commercial recycling facility, sorting and recycling white opaque PET bottles into white flakes from standard bales collected in Spain. The recycling process is based on IR/VIS sorters, which are available in the majority of plants. It will require a detailed market study to assess the amount of input material and to adapt the configuration of the sorting system. Flakes, raw material in the circular economy The white flakes can be decontam- inated according EFSA requirements and used again as raw material for the production of a recycled opacifier masterbatch or directly to rPET mono- layer bottles. Various formulas would have to be applied depending on final use and light barrier requirements, to maintain the same machine through- put and without impacting properties, functionality and colour. Novapet’s specialist team have technically validated that it is possi- ble to reprocess the white flakes, thus obtaining new white opaque resin and masterbatch formulations. All these formulations have been characterised along the entire process, controlling the key variables, in order to assure good processability and the decontamination conditions in the SSP reactor. Thus the process demonstrates that the recycling process to produce white recycled PET is able to be used for manufacturing containers in the food industry. Novapet Packaging division facili- ties produce the bottles using a regu- lar injection-stretch-blow moulding process. The properties of the con- tainers have been preserved in terms of colour, performance and light block- ing properties. Novapet’s expertise in compounding production and recy- cling processes from the bale to the bottle, allows the company to claim that their recycling process meets consumer demand and observes the relevant directives. This new family of recycled products, rDCU and rDairy, will be commercially available by the end of 2020. www.novapet.com