Starlinger touts progress on plastic detergent bottle recycling

Austria-based equipment and technology provider Starlinger says that “the call for sustainable packaging solutions for polyolefins – especially by brand manufacturers – prompted Starlinger to engage with this topic on a deeper level.”

The company says it has expended time and effort this decade to “engineer a project for the recycling of the input material of a renowned European recycler.” According to Starlinger, “The material came from detergent bottles from postconsumer collection that had maintained a persistent odor of dishwashing or laundry detergent even after undergoing a shredding and washing process.”

The goal was to produce high-quality regranulate and to aim for optimum removal of the strong smell, says the firm, while maintaining quality comparable to products made from virgin material. Starlinger says it started a test process during which more than 100 tons of HDPE (high-density polyethylene) postconsumer material was processed. The subsequent production of bottles from 100 percent recycled HDPE“fulfilled all expectations,” says the firm, stating that it was “the first technology provider to offer a recycling solution for detergent bottles.”

Samples extracted and analyzed during the test process “consisted of an olfactory test with human participants and a physical analytical method called gas chromatography,” according to the firm. “The knowledge obtained through this analysis enabled Starlinger to optimize the recycling process – and thus the final product – one step at a time. As a result, the material was fit to be reused in the production of laundry or dishwashing detergent bottles: a new take on bottle-to-bottle recycling.”

Starlinger says a special characteristic of its odor reduction by technology is its permanent nature. While conventional processes may bind odors using additives (and therefore enclose them in the final pellets), Starlinger says its process permanently removes the substances.