EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 10/22 www.petpla.net 26 A closed loop of 69% rPET in Switzerland The Swiss Association PRS (PET Recycling Switzerland) has managed to achieve a PET bottle-to-bottle recycling rate of 69%. PETplanet visited a Resilux plant in Switzerland which converts bottles into rPET on three machines and sometimes injection-moulds and stretch-blows them into rPET preforms and bottles. Poly Recycling is a subsidiary of Resilux Switzerland that converts collected bottles into rPET on three machines. There are two Erema and one Starlinger processing machines in the plant which have a total capacity of 90 tonnes per day. The bottles are routinely sorted, washed and crushed prior to them being processed. The main difference compared to other markets is that in Switzerland bottles are pre-sorted by colour which means that Poly Recycling receives bales that are rich in colour. As PRS and its members in the drinks industry both want to produce coloured rPET bottles, the rPET plant makes blue, green and brown rPET as well as the white rPET variety. There are still bottles that have PVC labels. Here, Poly Recycling is trying to remove the films by means of wind separation. However, a minimal acceptable residue remains in the flakes. In the neighbouring Resilux plant, rPET preforms are made from rPET with 25% to 100% rPET content, depending on the wish of the customer, says Daniel Sommer, Sales Director at DACH. Here, the ‘3 Ps’ have been written on the flag to express that PET packaging is not waste, but a valuable raw material. These stand for “Inspired by People”, “Safe for the Planet” and “Protecting your Product” and express the idea of a sustainable future in the company’s philosophy. Multinational brands in particular ask for 100% rPET preforms which Resilux’s Chief Operating Officer Roland Rinderer believes is crucial from a technological perspective. Given that high recycling quotas in Switzerland have been in place for a long time and with PET having been reprocessed several times, such a high rPET content can create a yellow or grey haze. In his opinion, this could be prevented by always incorporating about onethird new material into each preform which would in principle result in a recycling rate of 69%. The PET itself is not affected by repeated reprocessing. “Our preform department uses Netstal machines and Otto Hofstetter moulds. The preforms are examined on a conveyor belt before they fall into boxes. Preforms are checked with an IMD Vista Pecu Lux system. “The IMD Vista Peco Lux is a robust and straightforward system that has served us well and within which all our preform machines are integrated”, says Rinderer. Just as PET bottles are recycled, the boxes are also reused either as pallet or cardboard ones. Bottles that arrive at Resilux’s Poly Recycling plant are pre-sorted in four colours: white, blue, green and brown. Tour Sponsors:
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