9 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 26 No. 12/25 www.petpla.net SIPA’s XFORM RENEW wins Sustainability Award for PET Recycling Technology SIPA S.p.A. has received the Sustainability Awards 2025 in the ‘Machinery’ category for its XFORM RENEW direct flake-to-preform technology. The award was presented on November 11 during a ceremony in Utrecht at the Sustainability Summit. The technology reflects ongoing efforts in the plastics and packaging sector to meet rising regulatory demands for higher recycled PET content and to address the environmental impact of PET packaging. Direct flake-to-preform technology The XFORM RENEW system is designed to simplify the production of recycled PET preforms by converting washed PET flakes directly into preforms. Unlike traditional rPET production, which involves multiple energy-intensive steps like melting flakes into string-like filaments, cooling, cutting granules, drying, and remelting, it eliminates the energyintensive pelletising stage. SIPA’s work on flake-to-preform concepts dates back to 2014, with the first idea of flake-to-preform technology. This early research led to the XTREM RENEW preform system, an injection-compression unit designed to produce preforms directly from rPET flakes. Subsequent technical developments were incorporated into the XFORM platform, a traditional injectionmoulding preform system. The newest iteration, XFORM RENEW, is compatible with high-cavity moulds, including configurations of up to 200 cavities, enabling high-volume output. Environmental and quality benefits According to SIPA, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data from the original version of the technology indicate significant environmental benefits and are applicable to the XFORM RENEW concept, with potential for further improvements as production scales. CO2 emission: Removing the pelletising step is reported to reduce CO2 emissions by about 80 per cent when compared with preforms made from virgin PET. Global warming potential (GWP): Against conventional rPET granule processing, the system shows an estimated 18 per cent reduction in global warming potential. Energy consumption: Electricity use is also reported to be lower - approximately 30 per cent less than processes relying solely on rPET pellets. Aesthetics and clarity: The reduced thermal exposure of the material can improve preform appearance and clarity Output: The system can reach outputs of up to 144,000 preforms per hour with a 200-cavity mould. Circular economy while lowering TCO The award comes at a time when the PET sector is under pressure to increase circularity. Fewer than 60 per cent of PET bottles placed on the market in Europe are collected for recycling, and only a small fraction returns to bottleto-bottle applications. Technologies like XFORM RENEW have the potential to accelerate the transition to a truly circular economy. SIPA states that the economic impact is also a key factor for producers. Using washed PET flakes instead of rPET pellets can reduce raw-material costs. The simplified process reduces handling, warehousing, and transport needs, and the company estimates that total cost of ownership (TCO) can be lowered by 30–35 per cent depending on the preform type. The TCO can be reduced by up to 35 per cent when compared to XFORM using rPET pellets (based on a 20g CSD preform example). A similar improved cost of -30 per cent is seen for a 12 g water preform example compared to XFORM with rPET pellets. www.sipasolutions.com RECYCLING XFORM RENEW
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