SOREMA launches PET bottle recycling plant in Myanmar

SOREMA Division of Previero N. SRL 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 Recycling Research Center - RRC in Alzate Brianza with CPC collected dirty bottles, the company 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”. 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 thanked 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 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 of 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 SEA market is quickly evolving from PVC to PP labels, they would like to underline the importance of Sorema technology, which 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 was chosen after careful evaluation, has been installed in Yangon and reality meets the expectations. The company ordered it to recycle “post-consumer PET bottles” from collections throughout Myanmar. With the SOREMA plant, our company has thus provided an industrial-scale solution to the problem of plastic pollution in Myanmar”. He then continued: “The 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 now possible to reuse in high percentages the recycled material in new PET bottles production. The 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 CPC looks forward to working with Sorema again.”