No.12 2021 www.petpla.net D 51178; ISSN: 1438-9452 06 . 12 . 21 PETplanet is read in more than 140countries MAGAZ I NE FOR BOT T L E R S AND BOT T L E - MAK E R S IN THE AMERICAS, ASIA, EUROPE AND ALL AROUND THE PLANET MARKETsurvey Suppliers of palletising and shrink film machinery Page 23 Page 12 MOULD MAKING Page 20
The all-new PET-LINE comes with a variety of advantages to maximize output and minimize costs: • Maximum compatibility with legacy molds and PMC • Shortest cycle times for increased output • Lowest level of energy consumption to minimize the ecological footprint • Improved 100 % rPET processing to enable the circular economy • New control unit including Smart Operation to ensure easy, fast and safe start-up and production More details onwww.netstal.com
No.12 2021 www.petpla.net D 51178; ISSN: 1438-9452 06 . 12 . 21 PETplanet is read in more than 140countries MAGAZ I NE FOR BOT T L E R S AND BOT T L E - MAK E R S IN THE AMERICAS, ASIA, EUROPE AND ALL AROUND THE PLANET MARKETsurvey Suppliers of palletising and shrink film machinery Page 23 Page 12 MOULD MAKING Page 20
www.corvaglia.com We think about your caps, so you can think of everything else.
imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Vangerowstraße 33 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Anthony Withers WikiPETia.info petplanet@hbmedia.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@hbmedia.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@hbmedia.net PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | www.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ subscription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Dear readers, The Editourmobil is back on the road again! We were only able to carry out the West Pacific Tour 2020 via podcast and telephone interviews, but we have now started our tour which will ultimately take us to Drinktec in Munich. Due to the current situation, we are limiting ourselves to Europe, travelling only to those countries permitted under Covid-19 restrictions. We began with three appointments, more or less on our doorstep. In this issue you can read the interview with Alexander Krautkrämer, CEO of Bericap, on the subject of tethered caps. Much has happened on this over the past few months. The subject has dominated discussions at recent trade fairs. What will the cap look like in principle? The multinationals seem to be focusing on the Clip Aside cap. Current thinking is that this cap is consumer-friendly. We also report on our visit to the Plastic Recycler RCS Plastics. There, PET disposable bottles are recycled into PET reusable bottles. New plant has been ordered and will be added in 2022 to increase the granulate capacity to 50,000 t/a. At this point I would like to draw your attention to our third visit to Christian Wagner, CEO of the preform mould manufacturer MHT. Here, too, the theme of tethered caps was very much to the fore. MHT – an independent subsidiary of Krones – has invested heavily in the automated production of neck rings in order to be prepared for the expected conversion of moulds to new neck geometries. You will be able to read this interview in issue 1+2 / 2022 as part of our Caps & Closures Special! I wish you a very Happy New Year. Stay safe! Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler Cover: 66 feet (20m) soda pop bottle sculpture at Route 66 (photo: Melissa Kopka via iStock)
PETcontents 4 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 12/2021 Page 46 MATERIAL / RECYCLING 12 Bottle-to-bottle recycling at its best - Growth potential included 14 Difficult climate for recyclers - South African plastics industry releases latest recycling figures 15 Pure PET flakes - Achieving purity for food contact applications BOTTLING / FILLING 16 High-speed PET packaging line - New bottle design for Iraqi National for Food CAPS / CLOSURES 18 Consumer convenience with ClipAside MOULD MAKING 20 Rotated by 90° - PET preform moulds for side-entry systems 26 PET and rPET containers design for liquid soap - In-house mould making at 12 machining centres 27 Mould special products MARKET SURVEY 23 Suppliers of palletising and shrink film machinery EVENT REVIEW 28 PRS Europe 2021, part 2 32 Fakuma 2021 review, part 2 BUYER’S GUIDE 40 Get listed! INSIDE TRACK 3 Editorial 4 Contents 6 News 27 Products 36 PET bottles for home and personal care 38 PET bottles for beverage and liquid food 39 Patents 46 Outer Planet Page 18 Page 20 MOULD MAKING
yellow.agency T OTA LLY SW I S S. A FAMILY OWNED SWISS COMPANY. OUR INJEC TION MOULDS FOR PE T AND PAC FE ATURE CRAF TSMANSHIP THAT IS UNIQUELY SWISS. OT TO-HOFSTE T TER.SWISS
PETnews 6 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Erema awarded for Recycling Machinery Innovation At the award ceremony as part of the Plastics Recycling Show Europe (PRSE) on November 5 in Amsterdam, Erema received an award for its recycling system Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher in the category Recycling Machinery Innovation of the Year. Thanks to the combination of its recycling machine with the ReFresher technology that reduces odour downstream of the extrusion process, Erema has enabled the PCR-HDPE produced with it to be used in proportions of up to 100 percent for the production of packaging for direct contact with food and beverages, as confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The judges recognised this innovation as a step change in eliminating unwanted odour from waste plastics, allowing recyclate to replace virgin plastics in high end applications. This type of innovation is essential for meeting EU targets for recycled content of food contact plastics. www.erema-group.com Intro Sustainable Resources acquire Bariq Egyptian investment firm Raya Holding has completed the disposal of Bariq, its PET recycling specialist subsidiary, to Intro Group, a privately-owned Egyptian conglomerate comprised of a diverse group of companies in various fields including trading and commercial representation; oil and gas; and engineering. Bariq’s recent annual growth rate has been up to 20% Intro Group recently started to focus on the green economy and sustainable energy. It established Intro Sustainable Resources as a developer and operator of projects in environment and sustainability, mainly in renewable energy generation, power distribution and waste management, through Intro Resource Recovery. It is this subsidiary that has acquired Bariq, which will now be part of its waste management portfolio. Intro Resource Recovery’s projects include refuse derived fuel (RDF), waste management systems and digitalisation. Its new ownership will allow Bariq to diversify in the waste management business and strengthen its corporate image in sustainable resource recovery. It will also support its expansion strategy, including new capacity planned to be online by 2023. Bariq processes post-consumer bottles into FDA, Efsa, Reach, Health Canada & GRS compliant food-grade PET pellets. The facility complies with BRC and Sedex directions. It exports to global bottle and food container producer brands and major fibre producers throughout Europe and North America. With a combined annual capacity of 31 kt, made up of 16kt of rPET flakes and 15kt of rPET food grade pellets, Bariq currently recycles 1.6 billion PET bottles/year. Bariq says that its processes use advanced, sustainable technology from major European suppliers. Its portfolio of recycled products extends from food and non-food-grade PET (in both clear and green colours) to injection grade rPP and rHDPE. www.bariq-eg.com The Erema team with Michael Heitzinger, Managing Director Erema GmbH (left), is the proud recipient of the Award for the Recycling Machinery Innovation of the Year.
7 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net
8 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Drinktec 2022 edition 90% booked Drinktec, the trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry, will take place in Munich from September 12 to 16, 2022. The organisers announced a current booking status of 90% of the floor space and expressed confidence that the demand for exhibition space will be comparable to the level of previous Drinktec trade fairs. Digital tools already available offer a lot of scope for making participation in the trade fair more efficient for exhibitors and visitors. Exhibitors at the trade show can highlight their expertise in the individual topic areas through entries in the Solutions Directory. This will already be of benefit in the run-up to the trade fair, since the Solutions Directory will be available online to search through from the end of 2021. Visitors will also be shown offerings for their own application areas directly on their mobile device with the help of the Innovation Guide, a service available to trade fair visitors. By defining the main topics, Drinktec intends to demonstrate the potential for investment decisions in the coming years. Messe München is implementing these main topics throughout the event through special areas, the allocation of the exhibitors’ own offerings to these main topics, and expert sessions in the forums. These main topics include: Sustainable production & packaging, Consumer landscape & product design, Water & water management, and Digital solutions & digital transformation Drinktec will already be starting from December 2021 with the online program, Drinktec Talk. In four online events on the main topics, expert presentations on current solutions will provide compact information and enable an exchange with the speakers. The webinar series will be offered live and in English, and comprises presentations as well as an open Q&A session in which the participants can also enter into dialogue. www.drinktec.com Bekum America opens its expanded manufacturing facility Bekum America Corporation has completed construction of an expanded machine production facility to meet the high demand for Bekum extrusion blow moulding machines. The new facility adds 3,700m2 (40,000 square feet) of manufacturing and 690m2 (7,400 square feet) of office space to Bekum’s existing 10,700m2 (115,000 square foot) facility. This expansion will allow Bekum America to increase machine output, shorten lead times and will result in continued expansion of the workforce. Bekum America’s manufacturing team proudly shipped the first machine from the new machine assembly hall in May and will be busy in the months ahead fulfilling current machine demand. In addition, Bekum America will host a Customer and Community Open House on September 29 – October 2, not only to formally dedicate the new building, but to also showcase Bekum’s new state-of-theart manufacturing facility. www.bekum.com Quva signs agreement to acquire a 57.51% stake in Resilux Quva NV has reached an agreement to acquire, via a subsidiary to be established (“Bidco”), all of the shares of Resilux NV held by the Reference Shareholders, representing a total of 57.51% of the issued shares in Resilux. The purchase price payable by Quva for the Resilux shares acquired from the Reference Shareholders is equal to EUR 235 per share. The completion of the acquisition is still subject to merger control approval. The acquisition will be followed by a mandatory tender offer for the remaining shares of Resilux. Following completion of the acquisition, Quva (via Bidco) will launch a mandatory public tender offer for the remaining shares of Resilux at a price equal to EUR 235 per share. Quva anticipates that the acquisition will be completed and the Mandatory Tender Offer will be launched in Q1 2022, subject to the relevant approvals being obtained. www.resilux.com www.quva.com German Technology Innovative hotrunner optiRun
9 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Alpla establishes new Asia-Pacific region The Alpla Group, global packaging solutions and recycling specialist, has announced that it is strengthening its footprint in Asia. On January 1, 2022, the AsiaPacific (APAC) head office in Singapore will go live, with a new region being created from a merger of the former regions North East Asia and South East Asia. It includes current operations in China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The APAC region will be managed by Roland Wallner, currently Alpla Managing Director North East Asia. With 2,750 employees, Alpla APAC sees itself well situated for the Asian packaging market. Alongside extending the reach of Alpla’s industry-leading moulding technology, a focus lies on the further development of circular economy activities in the region. www.alpla.com rPET100 Designed for recycling. Made from recycling. • Heat resistant • Fully recyclable • Thermoformable like PET BENEFITS HOT CUPS · DAIRY PRODUCTS · INSTANT SOUPS · TO-GO MEALS · COFFEE LIDS foodgrade without compromise Berry announces availability of EUCertPlast accreditation With the approaching UK Plastics Tax and increasing consumer interest across the whole of Europe in the provenance of their packaging, Berry Global announces the availability of certified recycled plastic from six of its UK sites. The investment in certification underlines the company’s commitment to its customers during this transitional period and extensive, long-term capabilities to provide packaging materials with a minimum of 30% recycled content that can be supported by independent accreditation. This capability will be of particular importance after April 2022, when the UK Plastics Tax comes into force for all plastic packaging, both UK manufactured and imported, that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. It will also help to support brands internationally, who are seeking to demonstrate their commitment to more sustainable packaging in the light of ongoing consumer pressures and potential future legislation in other countries. The EUCertPlast certification, which works to the European Standard EN 15343:2007, helps assure customers that best practices are being followed throughout the recycling process for pre- and post-consumer waste in terms of stock management of incoming waste, recycling process, quality management, staff training and qualifications, traceability in supply chain and environmental protection. The chain of custody provides full details of the origins of the waste material and the waste management company from which it was sourced. www.berryglobal.com
10 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Investment in Australia’s Plastic Recycling and Sustainable Packaging Industry Pact Group has received AUD 20 million in funding from the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative for Recycling and Clean Energy Manufacturing projects to support its investments in technology to increase the amount of recycled materials in locally made plastic packaging. The funding will support investment of approximately AUD 76 million in new equipment and facility upgrades at 15 of Pact’s operations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, which are to be completed by mid-2024. The upgrades will provide Pact with the capability and capacity to meet growing demand for sustainable packaging, enabling the company to provide customers with solutions that will support them in complying with the Government’s 2025 National Packaging Targets. These require 100% of packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable with 20% average recycled content included in plastic packaging. The investments will also support delivery of Pact’s own sustainability target to provide 30% recycled content across its portfolio by 2025. The investments will be made across four areas of Pact’s manufacturing operations. Upgrades to national dairy packaging equipment at facilities in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia to enable up to 50% recycled content for HDPE milk bottles. Installation of world-leading technology at facilities in New South Wales and Victoria to boost production capability for PET drink bottles with 100% recycled content. Upgrades to Sulo mobile garbage bin manufacturing facilities in New South Wales and Victoria to increase production capacity to support the rollout of “four bin” waste management initiatives and increase the use of recycled content to 80% from the current average of 30%. New equipment at Pact’s industrial packaging manufacturing plants in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to upgrade production facilities to enable increased recycled content in the manufacture of plastic paint pails and plastic cubes used in agricultural chemical and industrial applications. The investments will create more than 250 permanent fulltime jobs in Pact’s facilities and a further 120 jobs during the construction and installation phase of the projects. The upgrades complement Pact’s investments in recycling infrastructure in Australia, including a new PET recycling facility in Albury, which will be operational next month, a HDPE recycling facility in Melbourne, a further PET recycling facility at a location yet to be identified, and several other projects that are under evaluation. Materials recycled through these facilities will include plastic waste collected from household recycling bins (such as milk bottles, food containers, and bottle tops), bottles from container deposit schemes, as well as old mobile garbage bins and other industrial waste. www.pactgroup.com Small bottle recycling initiative Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP) is announcing a technological advancement that makes it possible for billions of small bottles to be recycled. ARP states to first apply the technology to 50ml rPET spirits bottles which are often lost in the recycling process due to their small size. The size of these bottles presents challenges at most U.S. material recycling facilities (MRFs). The bottles tend to slip out of the sorting process where broken glass is filtered out for disposal. With its pledge to develop all its packaging to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025, Amcor is innovating to increase the recyclability of its products. Seeing an opportunity for improvement, ARP’s team of engineers examined the issue and began designing a container that collapses in a controlled way to maximise its width. With a collapsed width greater than 5 cm, this design would no longer slip through the cracks at most U.S. recycling facilities. “This discovery was made by the Amcor team when testing revealed that the bottles collapse in different ways,” said Terry Patcheak, VP of Research & Development and Advanced Engineering at ARP. “Our simulations demonstrated that when these tiny spirits bottles are designed to collapse in a specific way, fewer bottles actually fall through the cracks. The potential here is higher recyclability rates and more recycled content for multiple segments and materials.” Amcor’s bottle design includes intentional failure points and is based on the Association of Plastic Recyclers specific guidelines. Finite Element Analysis testing is being undertaken to better understand the dynamics of these small bottles during the recycling process. Additionally, ARP will partner with recycling facilities to capture real-world data about the recyclability of its new bottle. www.amcor.com
11 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net % " # # $ ! # ! # " # "
Material / Recycling PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 12 Tour Sponsors: Growth potential included Bottle-to-bottle recycling at its best Back on the road on our Editour through Europe we stopped at the waste management company and plastics recycler RCS Plastic in rural Werne, Germany. Here we met the managing director Mr Alexander Rimmer with whom we talked about his state-of-the-art recycling plant. He gave us his opinion on the current situation of PET recycling and told about his expansion plans with another Erema Vacunite granulation system. Perfectly connected to motorways and major European ports as well as railways, he is investing in a sustainable future. PETplanet: Mr Rimmer, at what point and why do you recycle plastic at RCS? Rimmer: The company was founded in 1985 by the brothers Gerhard and Franz-Josef Francke in Werne. They started with the collection and marketing of paper and cardboard and have developed signifi - cantly since then. We now employ 170 people at two locations in Werne. In 2011, we started recycling PET bottles into unmixed PET flakes and in 2020 we started producing granulate at our new location. PETplanet: What types of plastic do you recycle and where do you source your material? Rimmer: So far, we have recycled disposable PET bottles. The material comes from the German deposit system of retailers. Various machines are used for recycling: The sorting is done by the sorting system of Stadler, the washing part is an own construction of our company and the granulation is done by a Vacunite system of Erema. PETplanet: What process steps does the material go through? Rimmer: The material is delivered to us from the deposit system and sorted in the first step by the Stadler sorting plant, where contaminants are sorted out and the PET bottles are divided according to colour. In the next step, the PET bottles pass through the RCS washing facility for cleaning, where CHT detergents are used. For granulation, the PET flakes are sorted by a flake sorter from Unisensor to ensure quality and then go to the Erema Vacunite granulation system and the SSP system from Polymetrix. (See issue 10/2021 PETplanet) PETplanet: What capacities are currently available to you and are you planning any expansions? Rimmer: We currently have a granulate capacity of 16,000 t/a. Next February, we will receive a second granulation plant of Erema and will thus be able to increase the capacity to 50,000 t/a. PETplanet: For which industry do you produce rPET? Who are your customers? Rimmer: We mainly produce rPET for the food and beverage industry. Our customers are well-known brands in the food and beverage industry. PETplanet: What do you think is the biggest challenge of PET recycling? Rimmer: The biggest challenge in PET recycling is societal developments. Here in Germany, we can recycle PET very well because there is a welldeveloped deposit system. Through the deposit system, the PET bottles do not come into contact with any other substances, the quality of the material is thus ensured. This also ensures that the bottles are recirculated and thus recycled again and again. As a possibility for improvement, I suggest the spread of the deposit system in other countries, so that the collection and recycling of PET bottles can also be promoted throughout Europe. It is worth mentioning that the recycling rate for PET in Germany is over 97%, which is not possible in countries without a deposit system. Another suggestion is, and this is very important to me, a better cooperation and communication between the producers of food packaging and PET bottles with the recyclers, so that new packaging is produced according to the principles of “design for recycling.” PETplanet: What is your opinion on the EU directives? Rimmer: We are neutral towards the EU plastic directives. Through the legal requirements for beverage bottle manufacturers, we and other plastic recyclers receive support and more acceptance from the very top. In addition, the distinction between single-use plastics such as cotton buds, plastic cutlery or drinking straws, which will be completely banned, and singleuse plastics such as beverage bottles will raise awareness in society, as not F.l.t.r. Mr Alexander Rimmer, CEO at RCS and Ms Jessica Böckmann, Administration at RCS
Material / Recycling PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 13 MaTERIAL / RECYCLING 13 all single-use plastics are the same. PET bottles are ideal for recycling and the associated circular flow, which is not the case with disposable plastics such as cotton buds. Our work is influenced by the fact that the demand for rPET for the food and beverage industry has increased significantly and development potential can be deduced from this. PETplanet: How do you feel about the statement of the big brands from the beverage and packaging industry to produce their products from 100% rPET by 2025/30? Rimmer: In general, we find the goals of the big brands exemplary, but there is currently not enough rPET capacity. The Europe-wide structures for collecting PET bottles are lacking. We would currently recommend the production of beverage bottles from recycled material in the range of 50-75% so that there is no shortage of rPET resources and all brands can meet or even exceed the legal requirements. Should the situation in Europe change with regard to the deposit system, we see the use of 100% recycled material in PET bottles as quite realistic in the future. PETplanet: What is your position on chemical or monomer recycling? Rimmer: In general, we see chemical recycling as another possibility for recycling, as pyrolysis technology is used to recover a secondary material from the plastics. However, this process tends to focus on plastic waste that can no longer be mechanically recycled for technological, economic and ecological reasons. For example, contaminated plastics, waste fractions from different types of plastics that can no longer be sorted. In the future, it will be important that manufacturers of packaging and PET bottles work together with plastic recyclers so that the packaging is produced in such a way that recycling is economically and ecologically feasible. A combination of mechanical and chemical recycling would be optimal, so that plastics made of different types of plastic can also be recycled. This could significantly increase the recycling rates of plastics and thus contribute to a stronger circular economy. In the case of beverage bottles, on the other hand, mechanical recycling works very well and is also significantly cheaper than chemical recycling. PETplanet: My final question: Where do you see RCS in ten years? What are your strategies for the company in the field of plastics? Rimmer: We see a clear development potential in the future, especially in plastics recycling. In the future, we will not only recycle PET bottles, but also by-products such as closures or other types of plastic in general. With regard to the topic of sustainability, we would also like to develop further with photovoltaic systems on roofs and systems that correspond to the latest state of the art. We are also thinking, for example, of alternative drives such as hydrogen-powered trucks. PETplanet: Thank you so much! www.rcs-entsorgung.de/en www.erema.com www.sacmi.com Product design Product development Product validation Industrial production plant Process & quality control On-site and start-up assistance After-sales and Customer service SACMI 4.0 THE COMPLETE CLOSURE, PREFORM AND CONTAINER SOLUTION FOR YOUR SMART FACTORY ENDLESS INNOVATION SINCE 1919
MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 14 South African plastics industry releases latest recycling figures Difficult climate for recyclers Plastics SA, the umbrella body representing the South African plastics industry, has released the official plastic recycling stats for the year ending December 31, 2020. Each year, data is collected from plastics recyclers around the country by Plastix 911 on behalf of Plastics SA. Petco provides figures from their listed PET recyclers, whilst raw material suppliers Sasol and Safripol provide input on the production and domestic demand of plastics raw materials. South Africa’s plastics industry is dominated by the packaging sector (which accounts for roughly 52% of the local market), followed by building & construction (13%), agriculture (9%), automotive and transport applications (7%). Due to increased awareness of hygiene caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for flexible packaging increased 2% in 2020. Demand for rigid packaging (linked to on-the-go meals, PET beverage bottles and take-away containers) shrank, although packaging used for domestic- and personal care increased due to the greater emphasis on cleaning and the increased demand for hand sanitisers. Packaging sheeting was also used to manufacture face shields locally. Consumption of virgin and recycled plastics in SA South Africa, like most countries around the world, has witnessed a decline in collection and recycling rates during 2020, compared to pre-Covid-19 rates. In addition, many recyclers were unable to operate at full capacity for several months during the past year due to social distancing norms. Other factors that adversely affected the plastic recycling activities include ongoing loadshedding, water shortages and high labour costs which forced many operations to scale down, or even close their doors permanently. South Africa converted 1,739,480t of polymer into plastics products during 2020, a decrease of 5.6% from 2019. This is the total amount of locally produced polymers, imported polymers and recycled polymers sold to local convertors in South Africa, and excludes polymers exported, virgin and recycled. Locally recycled polymer represented 17% of the total domestic consumption, a drop from 18.3% in the previous year. Per capita consumption for locally converted plastics (virgin and recycled) decreased to 29kg/person (down from 31kg/person recorded in 2019). Per capita consumption for virgin material only, dropped from 26kg to 24kg. Virgin consumption increased by 11% since 2011, whilst recycled tonnages, locally converted, increased by 35% in the same 10-year period. Plastic recycling in SA South Africa recorded an input recycling rate of 43.2% during 2020. 461,500t of plastic waste were collected for recycling, of which 312,600t were recycled back into raw materials. 296,500t of recyclate were used to produce new products while 97,260t of recyclate was used to produce new packaging. In an attempt to improve the quality of the incoming recyclables, as well as to reduce their high recycling cost due to contamination, an increasing number of recyclers have started going directly to the waste generators. This allowed them access to cleaner materials and maintain their margins, albeit at lower quantities. 64% of the incoming waste came from landfill and other postconsumer sources. Of this, the majority of the volume (54%) was sourced from the formal sector, collectors and waste management companies. Most plastics were baled, but some were also loose materials. Very critical to the value chain, only 3.6% of recyclables were obtained directly from waste pickers and walk-ins. A further 6% was collected from drop-off facilities and buyback centres. 2018: 74,328 2019: 69,166 2020: 54,556 Tonnages of PET recycled in SA 2018-2020 End-markets for plastic recyclate Markets for recyclate exist in most local market sectors. Only 5.2% of the recyclate was exported as raw material to plastics convertors in the SADC region and Asia. Brand owners and retailers have committed to recycled content in packaging. Although currently, only recycled PET (rPET) is suitable for food contact applications, recycled PP, PE-LD and PE-HD are used in non-food applications, e.g. personal- and domestic care packaging. Recycled flexible packaging was the largest market for recyclate in 2020. 22% of all recycled materials were used to manufacture products such as bags or general flexible packaging. www.plasticsinfo.co.za
MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 18 No. 0/17 www.petpla.net 15 Achieving purity for food contact applications Pure PET flakes Reiling operates plastic recycling plants in Marienfeld, Hamm, and at Burgbernheim, their newest location. New guidelines have led to an increase in the volume of PET bottles collected and this influx of bottles means that full service is becoming increasingly important. Reiling offers an complete range of services, from collection (full service or DIY), through processing (converting bottles to flakes), to creating carefully controlled end products. Post-consumer PET bottles are delivered to Reiling’s facilities in compressed briquettes or bales. Before they can be processed, each bottle needs to be separated from the compressed mass, to enable it to be washed and sorted, according to colour. After shredding and washing, flakes undergo another cleaning and sorting process. Colour and material purity are of central importance for those who will eventually buy the flakes, as high-quality starting materials are needed to manufacture new products. Reiling Kunststoff Recycling says that it uses state-of-the-art equipment to efficiently process PET flakes, ensuring that buyers receive only recyclate with the highest material and colour purity. Flake Purifier+ systems from Sesotec play an important role in Reiling‘s PET sorting process. The sorting system is equipped with an array of sensors that make it possible to separate PET flakes according to colour, metal contaminants and type of plastic, in a single run. The latest models of Sesotec equipment are currently in use at Reiling facilities in Marienfeld and in Burgbernheim. Flake Purifier+ can be efficiently integrated into the overall system, offering precise fits for connections at material feeding and outlet points. Feed hoppers transfer PET flakes to the main conveyor for sorting. Material that is rejected from the main conveyor is automatically fed back into the system via a recovery lane, which provides the benefit that the majority of good material will be recovered; losses of usable material will minimised. Andreas Schragen, Managing Director of Reiling Kunststoff Recycling stated: “Our facilities have benefited from Sesotec’s reliability and competence for many years. The new Flake Purifier+ series makes it possible to achieve a closed material cycle. We can even guarantee flakes that are pure enough for use in food contact applications.” www.sesotec.com Sorting of PET flakes with Sesotec’s Flake Purifier (photo: Sesotec GmbH) Behind the Reiling name is more than a century of experience in collection and reclamation of recyclable materials. The German, family-run, recycling company provides a variety of services, including collection, transport and processing, to delivering high-quality recyclate. Their expertise makes them a valuable partner to industry, local government, trade, and dual recycling systems. GAWiSD featuringAutoJob ™ – job set up in seconds +1.724.482.2163 AGRINTL.COM ACCURATE • FAST • REPEATABLE SEE GAWIS4D IN ACTION Dimensional and thickness measurements for plastic containers and preforms. ®
BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 16 New bottle design for Iraqi National for Food High-speed PET packaging line Sidel has successfully installed its first high-speed PET packaging line for water in Baghdad as part of the greenfield project of Iraqi National Company for industrial food (Iraqi National for Food). With a speed of 48,000 bph, the line corresponds closely with the sustainability standards provided by Sidel. The new Dinar bottle produced for Iraqi National for Food comes in three sizes and is manufactured with a light preform, based on Sidel’s StarLite design. Iraqi National for Food belongs to the Iraqi National Group of Companies, which is one of the country’s leading companies in manufacturing, trade and transportation. Founded in 2019, Iraqi National for Food is recognised for its nutritional products. The company has many self-owned brands – including “Hindrin” carbonated soft drinks, “Dinar” healthy water and “Ra’eege” pasteurised juice. Iraqi National for Food initiated the new greenfield project to meet a growing demand for bottled water. After witnessing and experiencing Sidel’s solutions at two customer sites in Turkey, Iraqi National for Food chose Sidel as their partner to install the complete PET water packaging line. Two firsts in Baghdad: high-speed PET water line and light preform Following an analysis of the market and the customer’s requirements, Sidel proposed a complete PET packaging line for water featuring a Sidel Combi as a turnkey solution, covering the entire process from packaging design to equipment supply. It thus became Sidel’s first and fastest high-speed line in Baghdad. The 48,000 bph line has a line efficiency of 96%, Sidel said. The complete line solution are claimed to provide high sustainability standards which are of importance to Iraqi National for Food. For example, at the beginning of the line, Sidel’s EvoBlow blower fitted with the AirEco2 double air-recovery option reduces the required volume of compressed air by 35%. Furthermore, the Sidel Matrix Filler SF100 reduced filler enclosure provides a smaller filling environment with fewer chemicals and less water used during external cleaning. The air filtration system used in the filling process keeps the environment safe while ensuring high product quality. In terms of packaging design, the bottle is designed and manufactured in three sizes (330ml, 500ml, 1,500ml) with a light preform based on Sidels StarLite. Close cooperation overcomes lockdown obstacles To complete the installation on time, Sidel and Iraqi National for Food cooperated closely during this period, overcoming numerous logistic challenges posed by the lockdown further to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The situation made the process of dispatching our installation team as well as arranging spare parts more difficult. Although the line arrived at the site
BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 17 before the lockdown, the project execution was still hindered by the restrictions, especially because no one was allowed to travel to Iraq at the time. By tackling the dilemma together with the customer, Iraqi National for Food managed to arrange an exceptional flight for our team a few months after the lockdown,” explained Vedat Guler, Sales Director, Middle East at Sidel. The installation and start-up only took six weeks and the first sellable bottle was produced and launched on the market by the middle of June 2020. “We are very happy that we chose Sidel for our complete water line project, in particular during the pandemic. The Sidel team provided great consultancy and conducted efficient execution so that our product could be launched in a short period of time,” said Mohammed Jasim, Executive Manager at Iraqi National for Food. www.iraqinational-group.com www.sidel.com Iraqi National Group of Companies was established in the year 2000, with a capital of 13.5 billion Iraqi dinars as set of the companies with experience in industry, trade, transport and marketing. The companies are specialised in manufacturing and in putting products in the Iraqi market. The Groups vision is to provide foods of high nutritional value and high quality that enrich the lives of consumers every day.
CAPS & CLOSURES 18 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Tour Sponsors: Consumer convenience with ClipAside Tethered caps will have to be used for disposable beverage containers up to 3 litres in the EU from 2024. Two years ago, we discussed a number of potential options. Today, the industry’s solutions seem to be caps that can be moved to the side on straps or with a hinge. We spoke to Alexander Krautkrämer, CEO of Bericap, about the current situation. PETplanet: Mr Krautkrämer, two years ago, we were sitting at this very table discussing the EU Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive and what it would mean for the PET bottle cap. What has happened in the meantime? Krautkrämer: Our main focus two years ago was on developing and evaluating a number of ideas for a tethered cap. We also discussed whether new neck geometries would be needed, or if such a cap could be produced using existing neck geometries. PETplanet: Today, we are seeing the first designs appearing on the market: among the examples on the table we also see your ClipAside design on a 1.5 l OGEU water bottle for the French market. How did you get there? Krautkrämer: We spent a lot of time searching for a closure design that was both intuitive and convenient for the consumer as well as safe for the bottler to process on existing machinery. We finally decided on a licensed solution from ThisCap. The ClipAside closure can be handled easily without the consumer ever having opened a tethered cap before. We can manufacture the cap by slitting along the tamper band. We produced a sample run of 70 million, which was very satisfying. Furthermore, the ClipAside design convinced us with its consistent performance (e.g. opening angle) on all relevant neck finishes ranging from 26-38mm. We are currently supplying ClipAside for 29/25 and 38mm 3-start neck finish, and will start serial productions also for PCO 1881, GME 30.40 and 38mm 2-start within the next two months. PETplanet: In what way is this different from other tethered solutions on the market? Krautkrämer: We will see different designs and the market will decide which of these will prevail. There will be moulded and slit tethers, interferent and folded bands as well as solutions with and without protrusion. One advantage of ClipAside lies in the design of the straps that hold the cap in place. Our ClipAside model has parallel tethering straps. The parallel tethering straps give the cap more play, which means that the consumer cannot “overstretch” the cap when pushing it to the side. Even when pushed over at an angle of 180° to the bottle shoulder, the cap will spring back into an 180° position. Overstretching with trapezoidal tethers tends to break the tethers; hence one of the significant differences is not moulded versus slit, but it is parallel versus tethers under stress. The other big advantage for our customers is the flexibility of the slitting process. The new closure shell can of course be slit with standard or tethered slit. Which means: our customers can already today qualify and test their filling lines with the new closure design including a standard slit. Once they are ready for the market introduction with tethered caps, it is only a change in the slitting geometry which then does not require any further modification on the filling equipment. PETplanet: For 1881 neck finishes you are claiming an opening angle for ClipAside within a range of 160-180° whereas the slitted cap on the OGEU bottle fixes nicely at an 180° angle. Shouldn’t the 180° opening angle be the objective? Alexander Krautkrämer, CEO of Bericap OGEU water bottle with a slitted, tethered cap On the left: Parallel tethering straps; on the right: trapezoidal tethering straps
CAPS & CLOSURES 19 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net Krautkrämer: This is due to the neck support ring (NSR) diameter. Most current 1881 necks in the market are using a very wide neck ring diameter of 33mm. The cap then touches the ring when opened and can only be fixed at an angle of 160°. We recommend using neck support ring diameters of 31mm or even as low as 29mm as these neck support rings do not interfere with a 180° opening angle. You can see how well this works on an OGEU bottle which has this smaller neck ring. (Pictures above) And by the way, the smaller neck support ring also allows further weight reduction in the bottle neck. PETplanet: Which brings us to the neck geometry. Does the bottler have to switch to new geometries? Krautkrämer: This always has to be checked on a case-by-case basis. Bottlers can continue to use their neck finishes currently in use even though we highly recommend to reduce the neck support ring diameter. Nevertheless the new CSD neck GME 30.40 has been developed and is in the stage of market introduction. GME 30.40 provides a weight saving for neck and closure of 1.4g for NSR 33mm and even 1.61g for NSR 30mm. But, of course, I have to consider a bottler’s whole production system, can he/she make step-by-step changes, do they have to switch several lines at the same time etc.? As I said, there is no general answer. PETplanet: You said that the ClipAside is a ThisCap idea and that you have a licence to use it. Does that mean that other cap producers can also obtain a licence? Krautkrämer: Yes, and I think that is a good thing. Ideally one but no more than three technologies have to become established at large scale in our market so that we are able to produce the necessary unit quantities. In my view, it does not make sense to have a hundred different alternatives. Just providing the ClipAside for all neck sizes from 26-38mm involves a huge amount of effort and investment. We have already qualified and introduced the ClipAside for the PET 26 (GME 30.40), PCO 1881, PET 29/25 and PET 38 2- and 3-start. We can also supply samples for the PET 26/1-and 3 start, PCO 1810, PET 33-2 start and the Snap-on PET 26/10. We are well prepared to support our customers with large volume line trials and accompany them through the qualification and introduction process. PETplanet: Thank you very much, Mr Krautkrämer! Opening angle of 180° with narrow neck ring (left) versus an opening angle of 160° with wide neck ring (on the right) Individual test: Opening of various tethered cap solutions The Editourmobil at Bericap’s premises in Budenheim, Germany
MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 20 PET preform moulds for side-entry systems Rotated by 90° PET preform moulds from Otto Hofstetter AG are now also available for side-entry systems. The family-owned Swiss company relies on its proprietary Cavity-Lock stack design, with its proven track record in the top-entry world, supplying all corresponding EOATs ranging from 2 to 192 cavities. Otto Hofstetter. For example, in Austria, a 48-cavity preform mould for 1.5litre bottles has been running without a rebuild for 22 years; in Indonesia, a 96-cavity mould for 0.6 litre bottles has been in continuous service since 2007. The hot runners are also marathon performers. In Belgium, one of Otto Hofstetter’s hot runners has been in daily use since 2014, clocking up almost 16 million cycles and counting. Side-entry moulds A few months ago, the management of Otto Hofstetter AG decided to construct side-entry moulds for PET preform systems with horizontal robot removal. This means that PET preform producers can now enjoy the durability and high availability of Swiss moulds for both side- and top-entry platforms. The move from the proven topentry to side-entry moulds basically just required a rotation of 90 degrees. For this purpose, some small technical adjustments had to be made in the design. The result is side-entry MOULD MAKING In 1977, Otto Hofstetter AG engineered and constructed the first injection mould for the production of PET preforms. The client was the Continental Can Company, which had the mandate to produce new drinks packaging for Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The order consisted of 12 injection moulds with 16 cavities, many of which were designed to produce preforms for 2-litre bottles. Since then, many leading PET producers in Asia, North and South America, Australia, Africa and Europe are customers of these Swiss-made tools, which are manufactured using high quality components assembled with great care by skilled toolmakers. In addition to this craftsmanship, achieving the performance levels of the moulds from Uznach requires even more expertise. For example, refinements like OH Xtreme coating, which enabled a 72-cavity mould to complete more than 15 million cycles before its first maintenance. Or OH Xtra surface treatment, which reduces conventional average roughness (RA) from 0.2 to 0.3 microns to 0.05 to 0.1 microns. Otto Hofstetter is proud of the reliability of their cavity-lock mould design which the company claims has a longer service life than conventional feed-in designs, often needing revisions after 10 million cycles. According to the latest data from producers, this target is often exceeded, says 96-cavity side-entry mould 144-cavity side-entry mould
MOULD MAKING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 12/21 www.petpla.net 21 moulds that include all the quality and features of the company’s top-entry injection moulds. The stack structure is also executed with Cavity-Lock, and the latest performance-enhancing innovations such as OH XCool and OH Xblow can also be integrated into the mould. In addition, all corresponding EOATs are available to match the selected preform. The hot runners comply with all relevant standards. In operation For initial tests, a side-entry mould from OHAG was installed in a new PET-Line 4000 at Netstal. The 96-cavity mould (for technical data see box on the right) was designed for a preform with a 38mm 2-start thread, a weight of 50 grams and a wall thickness of 4mm. The EOAT cooling ran over four positions, the air cooling over three. With a cycle time of 13.9 seconds and an injection rate of 22.5 grams per second and cavity, the new side removal mould exceeded expectations during the first tests, according to the company. Well-known PET preform manufacturers in the USA, who are already using the new side removal moulds on a daily basis, were able to confirm the high performance in the tests and attest that the side removal moulds are of the same quality as the systems with top removal. Along with the engineering and construction of preform moulds, Otto Hofstetter AG offers a comprehensive range of services for all aspects of PET preform production. Projects generally start with the clarification of the customer’s needs and end with the testing of the first preforms produced on the production system. The Swiss company believes a successful project is best achieved by early and close collaboration with all involved parties, up- and downstream. www.otto-hofstetter.swiss Tests - technical data Mould cavities: 96 pitch: 60 x 140mm Preform neck: 38mm 2-start thread weight: 50 g wall thickness: 4.0mm Material : PET-IV 0.80 dl/g Post mould cooling EOAT-cool: 4 positions Air cooling: 3 positions Performance cycle time: 13.9 s injection: 22.5 g/s/cavity
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