Recycling

In the recycling plant the balls are transported via a conveyor belt into a disintegration drum, which initially separates the balls and briquettes into individual components. Coarse foreign components will be manually removed. A cutting mill crushes the drinks bottles into flakes. Labels stuck on with glue are removed in a final intensive wash of the material. In the subsequent swim – sink process the polyolefines are separated. PET as a heavy plastic sinks, while the polyolefines (PE, PP) swim. Afterwards the labels will be separated with the help of air stream sorting. The PET flakes will be processed into a food stuff suitable recyclate in a multi stage process.

The procedure used at RecyPET AG is a combination of mechanical and chemical recycling.

Combining known and new procedural steps leads to a shorter, ecologically friendly and cost decreasing recycling process, and products which can be reused again immediately. In a last operation step the flakes are homogenised in batches in large mixers with precisely defined quantities, placed in transport bags (Big Bags) and sold to the relevant converter plants. Only after the flakes have been sold does the actual recycling begin: the flakes are melted and a new product is produced from the bulk.