
Extrupet Group (Pty) Ltd., Wadeville, Gauteng, South Africa, increased its capacity for recycling postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. According to a news release from Starlinger, Austria, Extrupet ordered a second Starlinger PET recycling line to meet the country’s growing demand for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET).
Extrupet’s PhoenixPET plant, based in Wadeville just east of Johannesburg, converts more than 2.5 million PET bottles per day into high-quality flakes and pellets. Extrupet began recycling operations there in the early 2000s to reduce the amount of PET bottles ending up in landfills. The company eventually set up a recycling plant and in 2014 added a Starlinger recoSTAR PET recycling line at the facility.
According to a Starlinger news release, the demand for recycled material is growing to a point where Extrupet started to investigate the purchase of a second recycling machine. With the new Starlinger line, a recoSTAR PET 165 HC iV+ that will be delivered in early 2020, Extrupet will increase the recycling capacity of its South African factory. Starlinger reports that the new line will achieve a throughput of about 1,900 kilograms per hour (about 4,200 pounds per hour) and will be equipped with a larger solid-state polycondensation unit to further increase the cleaning efficiency and set a new benchmark in terms of rPET pellet quality.
Ravi Chanrai, Extrupet’s group director, says the group also plans to increase the capacity of its Nigerian recycling operations. According to a news release from Starlinger, the market in West Africa is dynamic and shows a strong demand for products made from rPET, such as bottles and textiles.
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