PET RECYCLING | TECHNOLOGY
centre that is working on recycling solutions for fibre-to-fibre applications. The centre also operates a fully equipped and variable industrial-scale recycling plant, that includes peripheral technol- ogy. It is available for customer trials. The Pure Loop recycling machinery subsidiary of
Erema Group is part of a research and develop- ment project to prove the feasibility of textile circularity, with no compromise in quality and technical performance, for sports products made from recovered polyester waste. Pure Loop sup- plied its ISEC Evo FibrePro:IV for material recovery. Pure Loop’s partners Radici Group, the Italy- based polyamide materials and textiles company, along with Erdotex in the Netherlands, which specialises in sorting used garments, and Sports- tex, a European sportswear manufacturer, all supported the project. R&D teams from Pure Loop, Radici
and Sportstex carried out various tests on used uniforms for football, volleyball and other sports to achieve a recycled textile product with high technical features. A mixed recovery technique was initially tested, where variable percentages of granules from recycled bottles were dosed with polyester granules from the recycled fabrics. The test process was fine-tuned until a yarn 100% derived from the recovery of the textile waste was achieved. Erdotex collected and sorted the garments for feeding into the newly developed fibre-to-fibre recycling process. Sportstex used the recycled polyester fibre to
produce cycling jerseys for Japanese cycling component maker Shimano, which embraced the sustainability project. Shimano branded the first cycling jersey coming from the supply collaboration. The project is said to have proved the feasibility of circular economy and recycling projects to valorise textile materials otherwise considered waste.
Clothing customers Recycling machinery supplier Starlinger continues to make inroads into the growing market for fibre waste recycling. Paul Niedl, Commerical Head of Starlinger Recycling Technology, provided an update regarding the 2021 installation of a RecoStar Universal 165 H-VAC iV+ line by Turkish yarn producer Korteks at its polymer recycling facility in Bursa. The system was initially installed to recycle clean in-house polyester fibres from production scrap together with washed post-con-
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sumer PET flakes at a ratio of 50/50. The production line, with a capacity of 7,200 t/y
featured a Rapid Sleeve Changer (RSC) candle filter specially developed by Starlinger for polyes- ter fibre recycling that would allow melt filtration down to 15 μm with an output of 1,000 kg/h. The line also included a ViscoStar SSP unit to ensure the regranulate produced had IV levels suitable for filament yarn production. Niedl said: “Korteks has successfully launched
their recycled polyester filament yarn line ‘TAC Reborn’ made of 100% recycled polyester, pro- duced on their Starlinger system using polyester fibres from production scrap and washed post- consumer PET flakes. Currently, no capacity increase at the facility is planned; however, other Turkish textile fibre and filament producers are running tests on Starlinger equipment.” Niedl said that the plastics recycling industry is experiencing challenging times due to competition from low-priced imports available from overseas suppliers, as well as the limited availability of input material, regulatory
policies on the horizon, consumer behaviour and image perception. “However, we note positive impulses from the equipment suppliers, industry and regulatory bodies in Europe regarding their interest to engage, promote and support textile recycling and to start creating an
infrastructure,” said Niedl. He added that fair PET pricing dynamics, design
for recycling initiatives, brand-owner commitments, extended producer responsibility efforts, appropri- ate technology developments across the value chain and regulatory policies are crucial to moving the textile industry forward. Starlinger continues to partner with local universities for research and development for selected fibre and textile projects. He said: “From 2017 to 2019, for example, we successfully conducted the Tex2Mat research project in cooperation with Technical University in Vienna and partners from the textile industry, with the main goal to develop new processes for recycling textile waste with a multi-material composition, in this case polyester-cotton blended fabrics. We used then a completely novel approach: employing enzymes to extract the cotton content. The polyes- ter fibres remain behind and provide the raw material for new fabrics. The Tex2Mat project
March/April 2024 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 17
Left: Sportstex used recycled polyester fibre in a project to produce
cycling jerseys for Japanese cycling
component maker Shimano
IMAGE: EREMA
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