PET bottle recycling

PET bottle recycling

PET (Polyethylenterephthalate) bottles can be recycled to reuse the material out of which they are made and to reduce the amount of waste going intolandfills. PET is semiporous and absorbs molecules of the food or beverage contained, and the residue is difficult to remove. Using PET bottle flakes to successfully produce higher value products needs improved flake production methods, suitable quality control tools, suitable conversion processes and the right processing equipment. Unlike virgin material, the processing of bottle flakes to the different intermediates and final products needs specific attention, depending on the process or final products that are selected.

Bottle-to-bottle-recycling

Company	Process	Contact	Input	Output (with approval)	Capacity (t/a)	Floor Space (m²)	Approvals	Fresh water consumption per tonne output (m³/t)	kWh consumption per tonne output (kWh/t)
Starlinger & Co. Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Bottle-to-Granulate	Elfriede Hell [email protected]	Engineering of washing lines and / or a turn-key project with components and technologies available in the market	Yes (decontaminated for food-contact, IV increased, AA < 1ppm, lowest VOC level)	6,000 - 26,000	Depending on design	USA/FDA (C-H), Austria, Germany/BfR, Ilsi, France/AFFSSA, Finland, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Japan, Switzerland, Latin American Countries; follows EFSA requiremens; brand owners	Depending on design	Depending on design
Amut S.p.A., Italy	Bottle-to-Granulate	Piergianni Milani [email protected]	Yes		3,000 - 45,000	Depending on size and stream quality		Depending on stream quality	300 - 600
Amut S.p.A., Italy	Flakes-to-Granulate	Piergianni Milani [email protected]	Yes		3,000 - 15,000	Depending on size and stream quality		0,5	Depending on design
Amut S.p.A., Italy	Bottle-to-Flakes	Piergianni Milani [email protected]	Pre-sorting systems and de-labellors available		3,600 - 45,000	Depending on size an stream quality		1	250 - 300
Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Bottle-to-Granulate	Christoph Wöss [email protected]	Yes, in cooperation with long-time partners
Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Flakes-to-Granulate	Christoph Wöss [email protected]	Basic flake specifications: Higher contamination can influence pellet quality but basically possible to process, after discussion and agreed by Erema		32,000	Depending on throughput and technology: 8 - 200	FDA [cat. A-H&J]; efsa (postive opinion issued); brand owners (conf.);several national approvals (Austria, CH, Zona Mercursur, etc.)	Depending on application and technology. Closed loop system	250 - 350
Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Bottle-to-Flakes	Christoph Wöss [email protected]	Yes, in cooperation with long-time partners	FDA [cat. A-H&J]; efsa (postive opinion issued); with Multi Purpose Reactor (MPR)	15,000	20 - 40	FDA, EFSA (Positive opinion issued)	Closed loop system	100
Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH, Germany	Bottle-to-Granulate		Engineering of washing lines with long term partners	Yes	up to 17,000		FDA, ESFA (pending), INTI, brand owners (conf.)	Depending on bottle contamination	Depending on input material
Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH, Germany	Flakes-to-Granulate			FDA, ESFA (pending), brand owners (conf.)	200 - 17,000	30 - 80, depending on size	FDA, ESFA (pending), INTI, brand owners (conf.)	no fresh water needed	< 350
Krones AG, Germany	Bottle-to-Granulate	Peter Hartel [email protected]		Yes	3,400 - 30,000	1,000 - 6,000	FDA - LNO / EFSA - LNO
Krones AG, Germany	Flakes-to-Granulate	Peter Hartel [email protected]		Yes	3,400 - 30,000	800 - 3,000	FDA - LNO / EFSA - LNO
Krones AG, Germany	Bottle-to-Flakes	Peter Hartel [email protected]		With/without approval	3,400 - 30,000	1,000 - 4,000	FDA - LNO / EFSA - LNO
Polymetrix AG, Switzerland	Bottle-to-Granulate	Karl Schöpf [email protected]			up to 24,000	5,000	FDA, EFSA, Brand owner	2.15	580 KWh, 590kg steam
Zheijiang Boretech Co., Ltd., China	Flakes-to-Granulate	Alan Ou [email protected]	Collected pressed bottles, various colours	Granulate with approval
Zheijiang Boretech Co., Ltd., China	Bottles-to-Flakes	Alan Ou [email protected]	Collected pressed bottles, various colours	Flakes with/without approval	3,000 - 39,600	600 - 2,000	150 - 180
Sorema Division of Previero N. Srl	Bottles-to-Flakes	Dario Previero [email protected]			5,000 - 45,000	800 - 5,000		1 - 3	0,22 - 027
Example	Flakes-to-Granulate	Example [email protected]	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Flakes-to-Granulate	Example [email protected]	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Flakes-to-Granulate	Example [email protected]	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

PET Recycling Associations

Amercia North:

Napcor The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) is the trade association for the PET plastic packaging industry. The association's purposes are to promote the introduction and use of PET packaging; to facilitates its recycling; and to communicate the attributes of the PET container as an environmentally sustainable package.

PETRA PETRA is the industry association for North America's producers of PET.

Europe:

PETcore Petcore Europe is a non-profit European trade association based in Brussels. The focus of the association lies on ensuring the sustainable growth of post-consumer PET collection and recycling and that PET is positioned as a sustainable packaging material.

EPBP The European PET Bottle Platform is a voluntary industry initiative that provides PET bottle design guidelines for recycling, evaluates PET bottle packaging solutions and technologies and facilitates understanding of the effects of new PET bottle innovations on recycling processes.

Asia

The Council for PET Bottle Recycling, Japan

KPRC, Korea Packaging Recycling Cooperative