INNOVATION | PET


Caps, colours and sorting issues


Incentive schemes to encourage greater recycling in general, and PET bottles in particular, are growing. The UK government announced in February it would introduce a deposit- return scheme for all single-use drinks containers in England. However, Tony Gaukroger, Director of UK master- batch manufacturer Colour Tone, argues that there are some other issues that need addressing to improve rates of PET recycling. “Cash in exchange for returning


drinks bottles is a great idea, but urgent consideration must be given to how we ‘close the loop’ on caps and closures,” says Gaukroger. “The deposit return scheme will no doubt lead to the capture of higher volumes of bottle caps, which means more of this valuable resource which can be turned into something else. But this then presents


yet another challenge, are single-use drink manufacturers confident that the bottle caps and closures it collects can be captured and recycled? Water bottles are moulded predominantly with clear PET, yet the caps are manufactured either in black, or in a multitude of coloured PE material. The separation of this plastics waste stream therefore, remains an urgent issue, since not only black, but some coloured bottle caps too, can absorb infrared – which renders them ‘invisible’ to near infrared sorting systems used by recyclers so they end up in landfill instead. Colour Tone has


PET containers in infrared light


The facility will process the 100% rPET sheet to make thermoformed trays for the food sector. The post-consumer PET material is decontami-


Below: Amut makes sheet lines for PET, PS, PE, PP and other materials


nated and pre-dried prior to extrusion in the vacuum reactor of the Vacurema Basic, with a throughput of up to 1,000 kg per hour. The newly developed Erema PET Laserfilter processes input material with a degree of contamination of more than 1% and discharges the filtered particles continuously. Due to its constant pressure, this filter system is particularly suitable for inline production. Despite varying moisture, IV values and bulk


worked in the NIR Sort project (with its parent company Luxus and other partners) on the problem of how to recycle black plastics packaging, with a focus on the development of a novel NIR colourant (see Plastics Recycling World January-February 2018). Gaukroger says: “For some time now however, the waste management industry, brand owners and retailers have stalled on the issue of black and coloured plastics sorting on the basis of cost. However, if you think that the cost of a typical colourant is just 1-2% of the overall material cost, which is itself less than half the cost of the bottle cap, its adoption is in fact minimal. So if brand owners are serious about ‘closing the loop’ on water and soft drinks bottles, they must rethink their materials selection for caps and closures too.”


� www.colourtone-masterbatch.co.uk


densities in the input material, the melt has a stable IV value and colour. The melt then goes directly into the Amut inline sheet plant where it is processed into thermoform- ing sheet. An integrated inline viscometer meas- ures the viscosity of the melt. High stiffness cooling rolls guarantee flat material and there is an inte- grated inline thickness gauge control. The hot lamination system is particularly suitable for sensitive barrier film due to the adjustable contact point. The wet coating at the end allows for an antistatic and anti-blocking solution. The monolay- er thermoforming sheet produced from pure rPET is 100% food contact compliant and fulfils FDA regulations and EFSA guidelines.


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.recycling.starlinger.com � www.sipasolutions.com � www.erema.com � www.suntory.com � www.kyoei-rg.co.jp � www.ngr.at � www.gamma-meccanica.it � www.amutgroup.com � www.globalpetinc.com


22 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | May/June 2018 www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


PHOTO: COLOUR TONE


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54