PETplanet Insider Vol. 27 No. 01+02/26 www.petpla.net 17 EDITOUR ing environments where input material quality varies,” he said. The RP series is engineered to deliver food-grade output regardless of upstream variability. Regulatory compliance MacDermid Enthone’s approach focuses on alignment with global food-contact regulations. All cleaning agents and process additives comply with FDA (Food & Drug Agency, USA) and EFSA (European Food Standards Agency) standards for indirect foodcontact. This is a critical requirement to produce food-grade rPET. Compliance hinges not just on chemical inputs but on the integrity of the entire process. Besides sorting, cleaning is an essential step in mechanical recycling but it is only one part of the process. In order to gain direct food-contact approval, recycled PET must undergo polymerisation, a thermal process that restores polymer chains to near virgin quality. EFSA evaluates the full recycling process, including the washing process and polymerisation stage, before granting bottle-to-bottle certification. Eliminating bubbles “Consumers associate foam with cleanliness, but industrial recyclers require low-foaming cleaning agents, in order to avoid process disruptions,” Laux explained. “Our ADDITIVE series is designed to deliver effective surfactant performance while minimising foam generation, even under high-turbulence wash conditions.” To further control foam, the company offers both silicon-based and non-silicon defoamers tailored to different process requirements. While over 90% of customers choose silicon-based options for cost, performance, and safety reasons, certain machinery setups require non-silicon With production facilities in Germany, Italy, the USA, China and India, plus warehouses worldwide, they are well-placed to support recyclers globally with their service solutions. Their formulations integrate easily into existing workflows, to improve throughput quality and process stability. As tray recycling gains momentum and regulatory pressures mount, their additive technologies offer a modular toolkit for recyclers seeking both performance and compliance. www.macdermidenthone.com alternatives. Additionally, MacDermid Enthone provides separation agents that enhance the separation of PET from lighter plastics. Experience and partnership “Our team has worked for years in this business and across the entire process, not just the wash stage,” Laux said. According to the company, the team can demonstrate a depth of process knowledge ahead of its competitors, especially those who have entered the field more recently. Their expertise spans washing, wastewater treatment and line optimisation allowing them to support customers not just with chemistry, but with systemlevel troubleshooting. What sets MacDermid Enthone apart, according to Sobrero, is their partnership model. “We don’t just supply chemicals,” he said. “We help customers use them at their best.” This means on-site support, iterative laboratory trials and deeply collaborative problem solving. The team has been known to work closely on-site with partners, to improve not just performance but also process efficiency and energy savings, which translate into commercial value. “Our customers could solve these problems on their own but, with our help, they solve them faster.” Global operations MacDermid Enthone is a large, global company whose main business is in the engineering and manufacturing sector. PET recycling represents a niche within its portfolio but one the company has largely defined itself.
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