Dentis, Italy’s largest recycler of post-consumer PET bottles, now offers food-grade rPET pellets in addition to hot-washed PET bottle flakes. The company is offering the recycled pellets under the brand name Repeter, available in various colours. It already supplies large brand owners in the food and beverage industry as well as local plastic packaging producers.
The Piedmont-based company extended its rPET production capacity by commissioning two new lines in the summer of 2022. The new production lines include two Starlinger recoSTAR PET 330 HC IV+ systems for bottle-to-bottle recycling. The machines are designed to ensure consistent reaction parameters, adjustable intrinsic viscosity (IV) increase as well as highly effective decontamination levels for food-contact applications.
“We want to support the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy” said Roberto Dentis, co-owner of Dentis Recycling Italy. “With technology from Starlinger we can be sure that the recycled PET we produce meets the elevated standards of our customers in the food and beverage packaging sector.”
With a combined production capacity of 6.6 tons per hour, the total yearly output of the lines amounts to 50,000 tons of bottle-grade rPET pellets. Dentis has also announced plans to extend its capacity in 2024, from 80,000 tons of post-consumer PET bottles in 2023 to approximately 130,000 tons.
The input to the company’s recycling process is secured through a collection system operated by the Coripet consortium, a voluntary non-profit group of producers, converters, and recyclers of PET bottles. The consortium operates based on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). Member producers, which include the Sanpellegrino Gruppo and Coca Cola Italia, are responsible for managing the end of life of their packaging and direct it into participating recyclers, which include Aliplast, Erreplast, and Giurit, in addition to Dentis.