RIGID PACKAGING | INNOVATION


any areas of concern. Following this contamination study, Nextek characterised the contamination levels and concluded that they are around ten times less than what we expect in HDPE milk bottles and a hundred times less than expected in PET. The results further validate the project as it breaks through the final barriers to closing the loop on food-grade recycled PP. Following Hillenbrand’s takeover of Herbold


Meckesheim in 2022, its recycling products have been combined with those of Coperion, and it says it is now able to offer complete solutions for the mechanical recycling of rigid polyolefin packaging from a single source. These systems cover the whole preconditioning process from shredding to fine-grinding, washing/hot-washing and drying, up to recycling and compounding, with the individual process steps said to be seamlessly coordinated. Herbold washing lines are designed to wash,


separate, and dry contaminated and mixed plastics. The lines start with waste material and end up with clean, pure, dry, flakes. For feeding the flakes into the Coperion ZSK twin screw extruder, Coperion offers the Smart Weigh Belt (SWB) feeder which can feed large quantities of bulk material into the extrusion process at high accuracy, even at low and variable bulk densities. Within the ZSK recycling twin screw extruder, the PP and HDPE flakes are gently melted at a very low specific energy input. Peroxides and fillers, as well as additives, can be introduced to the process using K-Tron feeders to achieve high end-product quality. In the case of peroxide in particular, high-accuracy feeding and homogeneous distribution in the melt are extreme- ly important for the quality of the end product. All ingredients are intensively mixed within the


ZSK extruder and volatile substances are removed from the melt using degassing features. Upon


An ICMA San Giorgio recycling line with MCM 110 extruder during installation


discharging the extruder, the melt is filtered and underwater pelletised. This year ICMA San Giorgio, the Italian provider


of compounding and extrusion systems, has successfully completed no fewer than five installa- tions of recycling lines, each equipped with high-performance co-rotating twin-screw extruders model ICMA MCM 110 and MCM 140 High Torque. All the projects comprise the engineering and subsequent construction, installation, and start-up of turnkey lines dedicated to the recycling of PP or PE with different density and the potential to add fillers and/or modifiers, depending on the set-up. The selected extruders have enhanced degas- sing systems for the efficient extraction of contami- nants while the high torque facilitates optimal filling of the screw and a maximum production output in the range of 2 - 4 tonnes/hr depending on size of extruders, filtering tasks and type and density of the scrap. Single systems are integrated into ICMA’s control panel, and all cabinets have remote control gates for efficient post-sale service. The lines are equipped with gravimetric dosing sys- tems and the latest forced feeders where appropri- ate, necessary for light scraps difficult to feed into the extruder. The thermoregulation system is said to be


extremely accurate and manufactured to strict standards. Filtration systems, depending on the setup of the different lines delivered, can achieve up to 80 microns to guarantee maximum purity of the processed materials and underwater pelletisers are set at the end of each line. “Sustainability and ESG policies are driving


processors to invest in advanced mechanical recycling,” says Giorgio Colombo, MD at ICMA. “Our latest generation of co-rotating extruders combined with fifty years of experience as turnkey specialist in this field makes ICMA the partner of choice in this dynamic and challenging industry.” AST Group, a producer of HDPE containers and


drums, has been cleaning and reconditioning used containers to ensure a longer service life and boost sustainability levels since 2018. Lindner has revealed its involvement in establishing a plastics recycling facility for AST at its site in Erndtebrück, Germany.


Lindner says: “From the beginning, the focus was on creating the optimum production loop that would make it possible to increase the recyclate quota for the company’s own products and also use the products made of recyclate in the hazard- ous and food industries. The stakes were unques- tionably high. Nevertheless, a short while later, the first centre of competence for plastics was estab-


September 2023 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 31


IMAGE: ICMA


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