Significant strides in recycling capabilities

Recent moves in establishing recycling operations have pointed to the growing capabilities for recycling in various regions.

In Myanmar, SOREMA Division of Previero N. SRL has achieved the necessary parameters for the start-up of its PET post-consumer washing and recycling plant. ExxonMobil, Cyclyx International, Sealed Air, and Ahold Delhaize USA teamed up for advanced recycling.

PET post-consumer bottle washing and recycling plant

SOREMA Division of Previero N. SRL has announced the achievement of all qualitative and quantitative parameters at the start-up of the PET post-consumer bottle washing and recycling plant at Commercial Plastics Co. - CPC in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).

Andrea Villa, Senior Technical and Sales Engineer of Sorema describes the newly started up plant as follows: “After conducting a wash and recycle trial on the plant at our Recycling Research Center - RRC in Alzate Brianza with CPC collected dirty bottles, we developed the parameters to design a 2,200 kg/h flakes output plant, which would make their material able to be reused to produce soft drink bottles again”. 

Necessary parameters met for the start-up of its PET 

post-consumer washing and recycling plant in Myanmar.

Mr. Villa then continued: “The material test, conducted at Sorema's RRC laboratory, has verified that most of the local market collection consists of small-format bottles between 330 cc (mL) and 1000 cc (mL) with a high-level contamination from PVC labels, sand, and abrasive materials. Based on this analysis of the material to be processed, Sorema thanks its robust and efficient design, has developed and manufactured a line BtoB for SEA, which features a series of customizations to be considered as standard throughout all South-East Asia (SEA) PET bottles recyclers.” 

The following machines, have been carefully built with the high-quality components, starting from the pre-washing module for removing labels and for optimal cleaning of the material surface. In fact, this technology prepares the material for a better sorting of the bottles and reduces the overall wear the whole line and without compromising the lifespan of the delabeler, which has an expectation of its first maintenance only after several months. 

Subsequently, efficient removal of PVC labels is achieved with a combination of delabeler, wet elutriator and material detectors. This technology achieves the highest standards required by major brand owners for their rPET.

Because the Southeast Asia market is quickly evolving from PVC to PP labels, we would like to underline the importance of Sorema technology, that removes with high efficiency the glue of the labels.

Sorema has also paid particular attention to the possible wear conditions due to local collection where the level of sand in the input bales is elevated. Mr. Ryan, technical director of Commercial Plastics Co. Ltd. confirmed the results: "The Sorema plant, which we chose after careful evaluation, has been installed in Yangon and reality meets our expectations. We ordered it to recycle "post-consumer PET bottles" from collection throughout Myanmar. With the Sorema plant, we have thus provided an industrial-scale solution to the problem of plastic pollution in Myanmar”.      

He then continued: "Our main problem was the large amount of PVC labels in the incoming bales of material, and this contamination was brilliantly eliminated by Sorema. At the end of the process, the expected results in terms of quantity and quality produced have been achieved. It is possible for us to reuse in high percentages our recycled material in new PET bottles production. Our engineering group has worked closely with Sorema's design, production and installation teams, and the cooperation with its engineers was outstanding, both in terms of clarity of information and support in managing the recycling process. I can then only confirm the excellent after-sales service and availability of spare parts boasted by Sorema. I believe that we at CPC look forward to working with Sorema again.”

Demonstration of advanced recycling for plastic waste

In 2022, ExxonMobil, Cyclyx International, Sealed Air, and Ahold Delhaize USA announced their intention to be the first in the United States to successfully launch a circular food packaging proof of concept leveraging advanced recycling. During a successful demo, plastic waste was collected from grocery stores, diverting it from landfills. Leveraging ExxonMobil's Exxtend™ technology for advanced recycling, which breaks the plastic waste into its molecular building blocks and attributes the certified-circular share via mass balance accounting, the plastic waste was converted to new food-grade packaging. This collaboration demonstrated that creating a circular economy is achievable with value chain collaboration. Following a viable test, the process is now being evaluated for scale.

In 2022, ExxonMobil, Cyclyx International, Sealed Air, and Ahold Delhaize USA 

announced their intention to be the first in the United States to successfully launch 

a circular food packaging proof of concept leveraging advanced recycling

Creating a circular economy for food contact plastic packaging in applications where there are strict safety and performance requirements is a difficult challenge facing the industry. "This project helps demonstrate how Exxtend technology can widen the range of plastic materials that can be recycled while delivering certified-circular polymers with the critical performance attributes of virgin plastic," said Dan Moore, vice president, Polyethylene, ExxonMobil. "Advanced recycling is making the impossible possible and is an important enabler to support a circular economy."

Ahold Delhaize USA brand Food Lion supported the initial pilot, collecting plastic waste for recycling at select store locations. With more than 1,100 stores across 10 states, Food Lion is one of the five brands that comprise the Ahold Delhaize USA network – the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and the fourth largest in the nation.

"Across Ahold Delhaize USA companies, we have ambitious goals around recyclable and reusable packaging," said Adam Springer, manager, Product Sustainability, Ahold Delhaize USA. "Based on the initial pilot, we're optimistic about being able to leverage this process at additional scale and look forward to exploring it further as part of this collaboration."

Cyclyx, a joint venture between Agilyx Corporation and ExxonMobil, was responsible for sorting and pre-processing the waste packaging materials collected from the Food Lion stores, before delivering them to ExxonMobil's Baytown, Texas facility. "The interface between the Food Lion stores and the Baytown facility was critical and required an innovative approach to feedstock management," said Joe Vaillancourt, CEO, Cyclyx. "Part of our process is to identify the chemical composition of the waste plastics we receive. This allows us to create custom blends of post-use plastic feedstock that are tailored to the specifications required for advanced recycling."

At the Baytown facility, Exxtend technology for advanced recycling is used to recycle the valuable end of life plastics and attribute them via mass balance accounting to certified-circular polymers. "The technology provides a reliable source to attribute to high-performance, certified-circular polymers," Moore said. "The resulting polymers, such as Exceed™ S, Exceed™ XP, Exceed™ and Enable™ performance polyethylene (PE), have the characteristics of virgin resins, which is critical for food-grade packaging."

Sealed Air, which is leading the packaging industry by designing and creating high-performance packaging materials that can be remade, converts the certified-circular PE resins into food-grade flexible film that is used, in the case of this proof of concept, to package select Nature's Promise fresh poultry. The packaging then returns to stores used on products purchased by customers, demonstrating an example of the circular economy. "By collaborating with suppliers and customers, we were able to identify, design, and commercialize an innovative flexible packaging solution which supports circularity," said Ron Cotterman, vice president, Global Corporate Affairs, Sealed Air.

Leveraging ExxonMobil's existing manufacturing assets, Exxtend technology can be rapidly scaled to process a wide range of plastic waste. To help meet the growing market demand for certified-circular plastics, ExxonMobil plans to increase its annual advanced recycling capacity to 500,000 metric tons, or approximately 1 billion pounds, by year-end 2026 across multiple sites globally.