System makes Switzerland PET-recycling-Champion – view
Petrotahlil-The search for The most environmentally friendly raw material for PET bottles is in the hunt for the purest diamonds. In Europe, the cleanest PET-granules currently, the PET Recycling plant in the Glarus Bilten, which was opened yesterday Wednesday. Lord of the coveted raw materials, Casper van den Dungen (58), head of the company Poly Recycling AG.
“With the new technology, we improve the recyclate to the level of virgin material,” he says in front of mountains of color-sorted PET bottle bales.
desires of the beverage manufacturers
For drinks manufacturers such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Migros and Coop, which are due to the environmental pollution by plastic is increasingly under pressure, is such a PET-granulate is a highly sought-after raw material – was recycled this so-called rPET to 100 percent.
Migros and Coop have been trying for years to increase their recycled PET content. He currently is at 30 percent, which corresponds to the Swiss average. The plant, in which, according to van den Dungen 25 million Swiss francs was invested, increases the recyclate share of Switzerland in the course of this year to 40 percent. For comparison: Europe aims at a share of 25 percent.
Switzerland has Europe far surpassed
“by 2020, Switzerland will create thanks to Bilten 50 percent,” Jean-Claude Würmli, Director of PET Recycling. He knows the slightly rancid odor about the plant. His organization handles the PET collection in the country and operates, among other things, 50’000 collection.
The big step to a circular economy with PE was three years ago. The Belgian PET packaging specialist Resilux with a Swiss headquarters in Bilten, Poly Recycling AG took over. The Belgians opened the Fund for the new high-tech facility.
cleaning with all the finesse
On a tour of the Poly-Recycling-in-chief explains the refinements, which were incorporated in the cleaning and grinding of the material in order to achieve the highest possible purity. “Cameras and near-Infrared beams to detect even the smallest foreign substances and sort them out,” he explains. Then the clean PET heated Flakes, melted and then through a melt filtration, where the micro-contaminants are removed.
in Front of a roaring machine, he explains: “In the last step we can remove the granulation of chemical pollution for the first time with a vacuum.” The final product does not look like a diamond to his Hand he holds a grey Granules.
flower pots brought in Belgian investors in Switzerland
its leading position in the PET Recycling not thanks to Switzerland recently, a 84-year-old Belgians, the earlier flower pots. Alex de Cuyper, founder and President of the Resilux, said: “The circular economy of PET bottles has long been a dream, and today it has become a reality.”
Into the Canton of Glarus it was the founder of the leading international Fabrikantin of PET preforms and bottles because of the company Netstal machines from Näfels. In the neighbouring village of Bilten, this was in the ‘ 60s, the best manufacturing machines for de Cuypers flower pots. The Patron would have earned Switzerland a flower pot from recycled PET, of course.
The Swiss population per year, 1.6 billion PET beverage bottles in circulation. About 83 percent of the PET bottles goes back into the industry.
a Driving force in recycling is the Organisation PET-Recycling Switzerland. With around 30 million Swiss francs per year, which will be collected on the bottles, financed collection and Information of the population. The PET Recycling saves against the incineration of PET annually, 43 million liters of petroleum.
demand for food-grade recycled PET rose last year by 50 percent. For this year, the quantities available, and also the additional from the new Glarus facility, were sold out by the beginning of the year.
