Filenews 19 November 2020
Around the world, there is now a common belief that the only potential development model that a "waste-free" future can offer to the planet is the Circular Economy. Today, however, there are only a few "closed circuit" systems that can take a material that has fulfilled the original purpose of its existence and give it new "life" without creating additional waste.
The challenge, then, is to develop more such systems. In no sector, however, is there more pressure than in the plastic packaging sector. Pressure that is particularly high in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that some of the most resounding 'responses' to this challenge come from European organisations.
The European Commission wants to put an end to plastic waste as part of its plans to transition to the Circular Economy. Thus, it restricts the use of disposable plastics and sets ambitious targets for the use of recycled materials.
Under the Single-Use Plastics Directive, PET bottles should contain at least 25% recycled PET (the so-called rPET) by 2025, which will increase to 30% by 2030. It is estimated that in order to achieve the 2030 target, the EU will need to double the current rPET reprocessing capacity.
Today, less than 60% of PET bottles are collected for recycling, and only 6% are reused in new bottles. Therefore, in order to achieve the EU's objectives, it is undoubtedly necessary to use new and improved PET collection and recycling technologies. Fortunately, moves are being made in this direction.
Innovative technology has already been developed to produce PET bottles entirely from used waste. This technology incorporates two processes that are usually implemented separately: the creation of ready-to-process material from pre-washed PET flakes derived from used bottles, and the production of new bottles (or at least the preparations in which compressed air is then injected for the casting of bottles) from the flakes.
rPET in itself is an important pillar of the Circular Economy. But this integrated process offers additional significant sustainability advantages, as it is much more energy efficient than traditional methods.
This integrated process, called XTREME Renew, was developed and patented by SIPA, a leading company in PET bottle processing technologies based in northern Italy, in collaboration with leading Austrian recycling technology company EREMA.
The XTREME Renew system requires almost 30% less energy than a conventional PET production system, while emitting 80% less carbon dioxide (CO2). Compared to traditional rPET container production systems, CO2 emissions are about 18% lower. In addition, XTREME Renew requires up to 20% less installation space.
The recycling process with XTREME Renews begins using EREMA's Vacurema technology, which disinfects the material and removes moisture from flakes under vacuum conditions. This technology requires less energy than alternative systems. In addition, it improves the colour of the treated material and keeps acetaldehyde levels very low (a degradation product that can affect the taste of bottled liquids). The Vacurema system also yields a very homogeneous mixture, even if the original material has variable violet.
In conventional PET recycling systems, the extruder that processes the flakes converts the material into granules for processing at a later stage. This process involves cooling the melt to solidify, cutting, drying and then re-melting the material - processes that require all energy consumption. In contrast, in XTREME Renew, the Vacurema system extruder connects directly to SIPA's XTREME pre-form production plant, eliminating all of these steps.
And its advantages don't stop here: XTREME uses a highly innovative bottle casting process (extrusion-injection-compression) that produces ultra-light PET models that work just as well as conventional models that produce traditional injection systems, which weigh more.
The containers produced by these models also offer high aesthetics, thanks to the elimination of the entire melting process mentioned above, which could cause the resin to yellow. The XTREME Renews system allows the insuation of bottles directly after the production of the preparations, providing even greater energy savings as the cooling and re-melting process of the preplasm is eliminated. In addition, the possibility of separate operation of the production of preparations and the production of bottles provides greater flexibility for processing companies.
XTREME Renew technology offers the unique ability to produce high quality, food-appropriate bottles, directly from waste flakes, during a single heat cycle.
The first two XTREME Renew units have been installed in Japan, in collaboration with two Japanese companies, Kyoei Industry and Suntory. These systems can produce over 300 million containers per year. Kyoei Industry is a large recycling company, while Suntory, with sales of 20 billion euros, is the largest recycling company in the world. and 38,000 employees worldwide, is a bottling company with a capacity of more than 2.5 billion euros. bottlings annually. A third XTREME Renew system is due to be installed in Poland around the end of this year at a Coca-Cola plant.
The recognition of the importance of the XTREME Renew system came a few months after the opening of the first two units in Japan with the worldstar packaging awards organized by the World Packaging Organization (WPO). WPO awards the WorldStar Packaging Awards every year to the best packaging solutions and applied technological innovations evaluated by independent experts in the field.
"This is a solution that is the perfect 'response' to the demands of the new Circular Economy," says Gianfranco Zoppas, president of SIPA. "The reprocessing of waste becomes sustainable and economical, while producing new products of high quality".
"It is an honor for us that this technology has received international recognition. It has been so successful in Japan that our partners there are considering adding two additional plants that will triple their production capacity to almost EUR 1 billion. rPET bottles per year. I hope that XTREME Renew will be 'adopted' in many other regions around the world," adds the SIPA president.
"Social responsibility is the foundation of each company's mission," Zoppas concludes. "The combination of environmental sustainability and economic development is achievable. Businesses need to help deliver a better world to future generations, and that is another reason why we have developed XTREME Renew."
Source: Forbes
