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. In oder to recycle post-consumer PET bottles, two major processes have been applied: chemi- cal recycling and mechanical recycling.

Mechanical recycling

High contamination levels by other materials causes great deterioration of POSTC-PET during processing. Mechanical recycling of post-consumer-PET consists of contamination removal by sorting and washing, drying and melt processing.

Sorting and washing

Contaminant removal in this step consists of several processes in which POSTC-PET bottles are sorted, ground and washed. PET bottles are separated from PVC, polyethylene and other plastic containers. PVC can be removed manually from PET bottle scrap before the grinding process. While no 100% separation of PVC is reported yet, efficient separation of PVC from mixed PVC/PET bottles scrap can be achieved using methods based on the difference between the physical or chemical properties of PVC and PET. After sorting, post-consumer PEt is ground into flakes. PET flakes are washed following grinding.

Drying

Drying is minimizing the moisture content of the PET flakes and hence reduces the hydrolytic degradation effect and leads to higher R-PET melt strength.

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]	4 models: recoSTAR PET FG, recoSTAR PET FG+, recoSTAR PET iV+, recoSTAR PET iV+ Superior / 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 requirements; brand owners	Depending on design	Depending on design
Starlinger & Co. Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Flakes-to-Granulate	Elfriede Hell [email protected]	4 models: recoSTAR PET FG, recoSTAR PET FG+, recoSTAR PET iV+, recoSTAR PET iV+ Superior / 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)	1,500 - 26,000	130 - 540	USA/FDA (C-H), Austria, Germany/BfR, Ilsi, France/AFFSSA, Finland, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Japan, Switzerland, Latin American Countries; follows EFSA requirements; brand owners	Approx. 0,15	Approx. 410 (Depending on design)
Starlinger & Co. Ges.m.b.H., Austria	Bottles-to-Flakes	Elfriede Hell [email protected]	4 models: recoSTAR PET FG, recoSTAR PET FG+, recoSTAR PET iV+, recoSTAR PET iV+ Superior / 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)	3,700 - 10,500	Approx. 150	FDA (hot-fill), follows EFSA requirements		120 - 250 (incl. bottle washng to SSP)
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
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	-	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
Polymetrix AG, Switzerland	Flakes-to-Granulate	Karl Schöpf [email protected]			12,000 ‐ 50,000	400 ‐ 600	FDA, EFSA, Brand owner	0.15	290
Polymetrix AG, Switzerland	Bottle-to-Flakes	Karl Schöpf [email protected]			24.000	4,500		2	290
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
Phoenix Technologies Intl LLC, USA	Flakes-to-Granulate	Lori Carson [email protected]	LNO, yes, PVC <50ppm	Yes	'38, total plant capacity, 9K ton of LNO installed, with additions available of 9K ton	1,000	FDA, Health Canada, EFSA	Trace	660
Tecnofer Ecoimpianti, Italy	Bottle-to-Flakes	Mauro Garbellini [email protected]			3,000 - 25,000	500 - 1,500		1,5 - 3	280-320

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