Commercial Plastics Co. starts up PET recycling plant

Commercial Plastics Co. (CPC), Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), has started up a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling plant that features equipment from the Sorema division of Previero N SRL of Italy.

Following a trial of the plant at Sorema’s Recycling Research Center (RRC) in Alzate Brianza in Italy using bottled provided by CPC, Andrea Villa, senior technical and sales engineer with Sorema, says the company developed the system to produce 2,200 kilograms per hour of PET flakes.

“The material test, conducted at Sorema's RRC laboratory, has verified that most of the local market collection consists of small-format bottles between 330 [cubic centimeters or milliliters] and 1,000 [cubic centimeters or milliliters] with a high level [of] contamination from PVC [polyvinyl chloride] labels, sand and abrasive materials,” Villa says. Based on its analysis of the material to be processed, Sorema developed and manufactured a bottle-to-bottle recycling line that features a series of customizations for Southeast Asian PET bottle recyclers, he adds.

The equipment includes a prewashing module to remove labels and to ensure optimal cleaning of the material’s surface. This technology enables improved sorting of the bottles and reduces overall wear on the line, Sorema says, without compromising the lifespan of the delabeler.                                                                                                                                                                

Subsequently, the removal of the PVC labels is achieved using the combination of the delabeler, wet elutriator and material detectors.

Given that the Southeast Asian market is moving from PVC to polypropylene labels, Sorema says its technology efficiently removes the glue used with these labels.

The equipment maker says it also has paid attention to possible wear conditions in light of the high level of sand in the bales produced locally.

The technical director of CPC Ltd. says, "The Sorema plant, which we chose after careful evaluation, has been installed in Yangon and reality meets our expectations.”

He continues, “Our main problem was the large amount of PVC labels in the incoming bales of material, and this contamination was brilliantly eliminated by Sorema. At the end of the process, the expected results in terms of quantity and quality produced have been achieved."

CPC's technical director says it's possible for the company to reuse its recycled material in new PET bottle production in high percentages.

"Our engineering group has worked closely with Sorema's design, production and installation teams, and the cooperation with its engineers was outstanding, both in terms of clarity of information and support in managing the recycling process," he adds.