Addressing challenges in PET recycling

Extrupet is a South African company that spearheads the recycling of post-consumer PET bottles recovered from the waste stream. Extrupet was the first modern recycling operation in the country dedicated solely to post-consumer PET recycling at scale, and opened its doors for the first time in 2000. Its establishment was one of the first signals that the PET industry sector was eager to address the challenge of recycling and the environmental problems created by the discarded bottles.

As industry body-contracted service agents, Extrupet combines collection, recycling and end-service products in a seamless value chain, offering the food packaging industry a cost-saving and consumer-gratifying “green” alternative at a time when impending carbon taxes, a weakening Rand and post-COP17 consumer enviro-activism will put increasing pressure on producers to redress their traditional business practices.

International Plastics News – Middle East and Africa (IRNE) talks to Joint Managing Director Chandru Wadhwani, about the company’s operations and how it has managed to overcome the challenges in recycling.

IRNEA: How would you describe Extrupet’s products?

Mr. Wadhwani: Every player in the massive global plastic industry has had to grapple with the environmental results of the world’s ever-increasing reliance on plastic products – perhaps more so in the fast-paced, once-off use food packaging industry. The good news is that Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is 100% recyclable, and not just once. Recognising the unique properties and durability of PET which allows it to be recycled many times over, Extrupet has developed the ground-breaking technology to manufacture recycled PET polymer in various different shapes and forms.

From the ashes of discarded PET that would otherwise have been sent to landfill, Extrupet creates a new raw material known as PhoenixPET, a food grade, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) resin that has won numerous industry awards. PhoenixPET is produced in two different grades, namely “sheeting grade” which has a standard intrinsic viscosity (IV) of 0.72 for thermoforming uses such as in the manufacturing of sandwich packs and grape punnets, and “bottle grade” which has a higher IV of 0.76 as is required for the manufacturing of PET bottles.

Depending on the application, rPET blend ratios differ, where say carbonated soft drink bottles might contain 10% rPET chip, while a bottle without gas can be produced entirely from rPET. The adaptation to using more rPET in the manufacturing process is, however, a relatively simple and rapidly rewarding transition.

With PhoenixPET, Extrupet aims to achieve a minimum percentage of PhoenixPET used in all PET packaging and to establish pockets of new packaging made from 100% PhoenixPET, in the near future. Unilever also endorsed PhoenixPET by using it in their Sunlight bottles at 50%, with plans to increase this to 100% later this year.

IRNEA: What are the benefits of using your rPET?

Mr. Wadhwani: Recycled PET, or rPET as it is known in industry jargon, requires far less energy to manufacture than virgin PET. For every tonne of food-grade rPET pellets produced, 254kg of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are released into the earth’s atmosphere. In the production of virgin PET, however, 681 kilos are released per tonne. Thanks to our innovative processes, Extrupet hasNike Air Max 270