MELT FILTRATION | TECHNOLOGY
Advances in melt filtration have led to
new products that deal with an increase in contamination
and the trend to higher capacities. Mikell Knights discovers what’s new from suppliers
New filters tackle highly contaminated waste
The latest offerings in melt filtration for recycled plastics are designed to handle higher contaminant levels and types while minimising melt loss and production downtime. Suppliers say the plastics industry’s drive to become more circular means technologies capable of processing a wider range of contaminated materials into high-purity grades are needed by plastics recyclers. For many suppli- ers their newest introductions include automated filter cleaning and designs that minimise process variations.
Italian plastics recycling technology specialist
Fimic says rising demand for recycled PET has led to increasing competition for available material, which remains somewhat limited. Recyclers serving producers of food grade and non-food grade PET are turning toward more contaminated PET waste streams as feedstock material from which to produce high quality recycled plastics. Demand for rPET supply has many drivers, such
as new regulations and taxes coming into force on packaging made solely from virgin plastics. At the same time, major brands in their supply chains have started to evaluate their carbon footprint and to
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
take mitigating actions like packaging redesign and light weighting, reducing the use for virgin materi- als, increasing reusability, and setting targets for minimum recycled plastic content in their products. The rise in rPET demand and in prices are incentivising investments in new recycling capacity, with global rPET capacity forecast to boom over the next five years, says Fimic. Those forecasts are confirmed by sources such
as Plastics Recyclers Europe, the European plastics recycling association, which reported in March that installed plastic recycling capacity in EU27+3 nations grew by 17% in 2021, boosted by an estimated €1.75bn in investments. Total capacity in the EU27+3 nations stands at 11.3m tonnes, with more than 730 recycling sites represented. Accord- ing to PRE, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK and France are the countries with the highest installed capaci- ties, representing 66% of the total market, which had €8.7bn in turnover. Fimic says it has been working for many years now on improving its filtration technologies to meet the ever-increasing quality needs and different materials characteristics of recyclers, who now deal
March/April 2023 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 45
Main image: Maag recycling line with melt filtration system from its Ettlinger business
IMAGE: MAAG
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