Maincasa shows off complete line, from waste to bags

Mexico City — A large white tent located just outside of the back corner of Hall D at Plastimagen 2019 in Mexico City was the spot where one company set out to prove the importance of plastics recycling.

Sure, Maquinaria Industrial Cabrera S.A. de C.V. had plenty of brochures and booklets talking about its plastics machinery.

But the company, known as Maincasa, also showed attendees during the trade show in early April how the equipment could turn recycled low density polyethylene film into brand new, bright-white T-shirt bags emblazoned with the company's logo.

Maincasa had another booth on the main show floor where the company displayed injection molding machinery producing waste cans. During production, attendees lined up patiently along the side of the company's booth, waiting for their chance to receive a free garbage container.

But back in that white tent, where food trucks also sat on one side, Maincasa assembled an entire production line of equipment to show off recycling machinery.

Men, at one end of the line, fed used low density polythylene film onto a conveyer that took the material into a shredder capable of handling some 1,200 kilograms per hour. From there, the recycled LDPE was melted, filtered, extruded and made into pellets.

The process was loud — very loud — as multiple machines ran at the same time to create the production line.

These dark gray pellets were then master batched with white pigment and sent to a blown film extrusion machine to create film that was then rolled and eventually moved to a printing machine, and then to a bag-making machine.

Maincasa then gave those finished bags, emblazoned with the company's logo, to Plastimagen attendees.

The entire process was contained within the tent and took about eight Maincasa employees to man the operations at any one time, explained Omar Castro Avalos, a sales coordinator with the company's plastics machinery business.

The company also displayed a smaller separate extrusion line, adjacent to the integrated recycling system, making recycled pellets of a different color

"We are showing that we use garbage to produce new useful products," said Castro Avalos, as he walked around the equipment, explaining the attributes of each machine and step along the process. He is in sales, after all.

"We're showing that plastic is a very friendly material. Right now, many people are pushing to quit the plastics," Castro Avalos said. "We try to show all the people that plastics is a friendly material with the machines. This is our final objective."

Logistics at a plastics trade show can be challenging for any company bringing in equipment to showcase.

And Maincasa, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, spent two days working to set up the recycling system, Castro Avalos said.

Workers began on the Saturday before the show started, but had to take a break the next day as others put up the tent that now covers the equipment and food trucks. Maincasa employees were back at it on Monday installing the equipment and getting it ready for production.

That work ultimately was completed around 2 a.m. Tuesday, just hours before the opening of the show, Castro Avalos said.

Because some of the equipment along the recycling and production line worked at higher capacities than others, the sales coordinator expected extra recycled pellets at the end of the show that would not be transformed into new bags. Those pellets, Castro Avalos said, will be sold to Maincasa customers.

The T-shirt bags, meanwhile, are of a thicker gauge than traditional grocery bags and are designed for multiple uses, he said, and have a strong demand among attendees.