Following an initiative by NGR — Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH — leading Austrian companies are joining forces to prove that non-bottle PET waste can be recycled into new products. The project is called RePETitio.
NGR, of Feldkirchen an der Donau, Austria, reports that starting in June, PET household waste such as blister packaging, thermoformed trays and films have been collected and sorted into six materials, by Lavu/Oö Landes-Abfallunternehmen GmbH and ARA/Alststoff Recycling Austria AG.
“Together with the Upper Austria plastics cluster, we were able to initiate this project with leading Austrian companies and see the benefit above all in the lively dialogue to strengthen the recycling economy with PET waste that has so far been little used,” said Thomas Pichler, managing partner of NGR.
Kruschitz GmbH will produce the subsequent, high quality flake, including washing and shredding.
The PET flakes then will be reprocessed and decontaminated using NGR’s LSP process (liquid state polycondensation) in Feldkirchen, where both recycled PET granulate and recycled PET sheets will be produced.
NRG said that, during the LSP process, the recycled PET is decontaminated at the molecular level and the polymer chains are extended to increase the intrinsic viscosity.
Teufelberger GmbH uses the recycled PET to produce strapping. Greiner Packaging GmbH produces bottles and thermoformed trays for food and non-food applications.
Finally, the products made of recycled PET are compared those made from virgin PET.
RePETitio is scientifically backed by the Transfercenter für Kunststofftecknik GmbH. The project is scheduled to run until September of 2020. It is financially supported by the government of Upper Austria.
For information on project RePETitio, contact consultant Michael Heinzlreiter. Tel. 011 43 680 118 5559, email [email protected]