PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2021

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 04/21 www.petpla.net 16 Technology for recycling PCR PET trays Recovering the iV loss The global trend towards increased post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, in water and carbonated soft drink segments especially, has driven up demand for clear PCR PET bottle flakes. A shortage of supply has led to increased prices for PCR and the search for additional sources. Starlinger viscotec’s solution is to source, process and prepare PET tray flakes for recycling. PET tray flakes are currently underutilised; only around one-fifth of PET thermoformed materials, such as clamshells, cups, trays, or boxes, are recovered from the recycling stream in Europe, according to Plastic Recy- clers Europe, eunomia report, 2018. The situation in the US is very similar, according to Napcor. “Post-consumer thermoforms are generally not captured in the PET recy- cling stream,” Jeff Cornell, Vice Presi- dent of Sales at Starlinger-Sahm, Inc., observed. “This is changing with new legislation and improved technologies to sort out this valuable material.” The Plastic Recyclers Europe asso- ciation estimates that more developed reprocessing routes can enable PET trays to be collected and recycled at a similar rate to overall plastic packaging. Starlinger viscotec say that recyclers are now preparing recycling lines for pro- cessing it. However, it has lower intrinsic viscosity (iV) and needs pre-treatment. Tray to tray recycling requires the intrinsic viscosity of the sheet and the final thermoformed packaging to be maintained at an optimal level. When Starlinger viscotec presented deCon iV+ in 2019, it described it as a turnkey solu- tion to close the tray recycling loop. “With viscotec’s experience, we are poised to meet the demand for true tray to tray circular economy requirements with the deCon iV+: offering crystallisa- tion, super cleaning decontamination and IV increase, all in one unit,” Cornell said. Starlinger reports that it has sold its new decontamination dryer to custom- ers in the US, Great Britain, Poland, Japan, Germany and Italy. The deCon iV+ is designed for the production of dry, iV increased, crystallised, de-dusted post-consumer flakes. The unit pro- cesses thermoform flakes, bottle flakes, or in-house skeleton waste and is installed directly in front of a production extruder. Intrinsic viscosity is increased in the deCon iV+ in every recycling cycle; IV losses are recovered while quality is kept at an optimal level. Starlinger viscotec says that the technology delivers decontamination of PCR materials that exceed EFSA and FDA standards, while increasing IV for dedicated tray recycling. The equipment processes on a FIFO (first in-first out) basis. deCon iV+ is also claimed to offer excellent de-dusting as well as drying below 50ppm and good colour values. www.viscotec.at Jeff Cornell, Vice President of Sales at Starlinger-Sahm, Inc. deCon iV+ decontamina- tion unit