Italian machinery manufacturer Amut has won the tender contract for the construction of a large-scale sorting and recycling plant for post-consumer PET & HDPE bottles. The project is a joint venture between two leading groups specialising in raw materials production and rigid packaging solutions in southeast Asia and worldwide.
Amut has been selected as a turn-key supplier to the project, described as the “most important project for sorting and recycling post-consumer PET & HDPE bottles of the last two years in South East Asia Region”.
The lightweight bottles to be processed at the plant will also have PVC and non-PVC shrinkable sleeves. To handle these, the lines will feature a double de-labeller configuration featuring Amut’s patented de-labellers. The first will detach most of the shrink sleeves labels through a dry cleaning action; the second unit is a wet de-labeller that will function as a cold pre-washing, to remove contaminants without damaging the bottles.
After washing, the PET bottles will be sorted out and recycled into high-purity r-PET high purity flakes. These undergo extrusion and SSP -Solid State Polymerisation - to produce preforms based on r-PET. The total net output at this plant will be 30,000 ton/year.
An additional installation will be dedicated to sorting and recycling post-consumer HDPE bottles. The aim is to produce food grade r-HDPE flakes which, following extrusion, can be used to produce flexible and rigid packaging industry. This plant plant will have a capacity of 15,000 ton/year of r-HDPE.
The washing technology developed by Amut will enhance the quality level and purity of the flakes produced, enabling these to be reused to produce new bottles.
The entire process is engineered to comply with the most demanding of bottle-to-bottle applications, while minimising operational costs, fresh water usage, the use of cleaning agents and energy consumption. Only 1.1 litre of fresh water is used for each kg of high purity flakes produced, thanks to the company’s patented Friction Washer unit.
The plant is scheduled to come online by the end of the next year.