TECHNOLOGY | WASHING
hot air over the flakes and any dust or remaining label fragments are removed in a zig-zag sifter. The flakes are then sorted once again and particles that are either smaller than 2 mm or larger than 25 mm are separated. Then the flakes are checked through optical sorting within the visible light spectrum and laser sorting, which also detects aluminium frag- ments. Finally, the flakes are packed and shipped to one of Sources Alma’s 50 factories in Europe. “At the end of the process, the PET flakes are
clean and free of contaminants,” said Gregoire. “They can then be melted down into pellets and made into new bottles or other plastic products.”
Deinking focus Sorema, the recycling systems division of Previero, says the printed film washing plant with deinking technology installed at Coveris-ReCover in Lin- colnshire, UK has hit several quality and quantity targets. “The international market had long been asking for a solution to recycle increasingly significant fractions of films used in consumer pack- aging, where the challenge was the printed fraction,” said Dario Previero, Sorema manager. “More than a decade ago, Sorema began a series of industrial tests to understand the ink removal mechanism and design machines for this technol- ogy. In Sortology, we found the right partner to complete the process with chemical cleaners. Together, we have developed and are in the process of patenting a system that washes and deinks printed films. Thanks to Coveris-ReCover, we had the opportunity to jointly develop and install a production facility where all films are deinked to a quality level that allows Coveris to
reuse them in high percentages in the original packaging. The technology is already being used for both PP and PE films.” The deinking system has two basic components:
a batch reactor in which deinking is carried out and a water filtration system which minimises water and chemical consumption. Previero continued: “The ink industry has thousands of different formulations, pigments, primers, and substrates. The batch reactor is by far the best solution as it allows perfect control of time, friction, and chemical concentration. To support new projects, we have installed a 1:1 scale deink- ing line in our lab for test validation, which has attracted great interest in the packaging-to-pack- aging market. Sorema is already looking ahead, developing solutions for post-consumer films and highly contaminated packaging in the food industry. Another challenge for our technical centre, and of great interest to the market, is the combination of the deinking process with our delamination technology, which is patent pending.” Sorema delivered the first post-industrial film deinking plant to Coveris-ReCover in 2023 and upgraded the line in the summer of 2024. “At Coveris we produce for several customers, so we have many custom printing solutions that require flexibility and vendor support,” said Mike Richard- son, Technical Director at Coveris-ReCover. “We are incredibly pleased with the results of the project, and today we can use high percentages of recycled material to meet the recycling mission of both Coveris and our customers. The Sorema plant has a production capacity of up to 1,000 kg/h for films and up to 1,500 kg/h for rigid packaging. With the
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