Multinational PET producer Indorama is investing in shredding to help it achieve sustainability and recycled materials goals.
Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL), headquartered in Thailand, is a producer of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other materials related to the PET supply chain. It has implemented a global growth strategy in which Including substantial investment in PET, a recycled component. rPET) production.
The company's global influence in rPET production may be unparalleled, because IVL Chief Sustainability Officer Yashovardhan (Yash) Lohia puts the establishment of the rPET production and supply chain as a top priority. Yash is the son of Aloke Lohia, CEO of IVL Group.
The company's investment in PET bottle recycling has spanned multiple continents, and part of this year's mark is an increase in business in North America. In June of this year, IVL announced and completed the acquisition of a former CarbonLite PET bottle recycling plant in Texas.
In Europe, the company has plants in France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland, and also has rPET production capacity in Brazil and Mexico in Latin America.
Asia remains the target of IVL rPET investment, and the company announced or completed new PET bottle recycling capabilities in India and Indonesia this year alone. (There is also a factory under construction in the Philippines.) These investments are linked to the overall global goal of being able to recycle 50 billion PET bottles each year.
Although IVL is exploring chemical recycling technologies, most of its current commitments rely heavily on the mechanical recycling of waste PET bottles. This means that pulverization and other downsizing methods are a key part of its large-scale recycling process.
The company chose to retain most of its processing technology, but the IVL Corporate Communications department is willing to share some general observations about its experience in shredding PET bottles around the world.
IVL stated that it acquires and shreds PET bottles of various sizes, and its system can accept PET bottles of different sizes in the same production process.
Global standards and certification systems help ensure that its recycling plants (including shredding and all steps before and after) produce the ideal rPET. IVL lists the "Global Recycling Standard (GRS) certified by Control Union" as the "most common standard", but it also lists REACH [Chemical Treatment I EU]; OEKO-TEX and Standard 100 [About Textiles and Polymerization Fabrics]; SGS [about footwear materials]; and Ecomark [Indian standards] are applicable to certain facilities.
For the shredding process, packaged PET bottles are the most common raw material. IVL says that once the bales arrive at the factory, they are weighed and "strictly inspected by our experienced staff to meet quality standards."
The mechanical process "starts from opening the bag, sorting out other contaminants, including labels, heating and washing with water to clean the bottles, and then sorting out other polymers from the PET."
The sorting process is probably the most investment intensive. "After sorting the compressed bottles from the big bag, more than 20 steps need to be taken. Key methods/technologies are deployed, such as magnets and all-metal detectors, electromagnetic induction, label removal machinery, rotating screens, near-infrared radiation sensors , Spectroscopic camera, water tank and floating water system, and centrifugal dryer."
Then the sorted PET bottles are fed in to reduce the size to make flakes. IVL points out, “All bottle caps and other lighter contaminants are removed by flotation. Then they are hot washed with chemicals and dried, then melted into pellets and used as recycled materials.”
Indorama did not disclose the details of its crushing process, but the most common two-stage system relies on a sturdy, low-speed, high-torque crusher in the initial stage and a high-speed pelletizer in the second stage.
The 2019 custom publication prepared for the US-based SSI Shredding Systems showed how First Pass high-torque machines became the backbone of KW Plastics, a U.S. high-density polyethylene (HDPE) recycler.
KW praised the shredder provided by SSI for its ability to “treat pollution that other shredders cannot handle”. Although the plastic bottle package should only contain these, the KW factory manager pointed out that the contaminants may include "metal or large pieces of wood and other things that should not be in the package."
After the primary shredding and sorting, the two-pass system usually turns to a high-speed pelletizer or grinder. The 2019 Recycling Today feature article describes the role of this type of grinder in Mega Recycling & Compounding Services LLC in the United States.
The company recycles plastics such as clean polypropylene (PP), high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate and nylon. In 2019, its seven grinder fleet is creating products with recyclable ingredients that are mixed into resins and molded into plastic parts by its sister companies Mega Compounding, Mega Molding and Mega Polymers.
Bret Garrison, president of Mega Recycling, told Recycling Today in 2019 that the company’s comprehensive recycling, compounding, and molding operations “all start with grinding. If we don’t have a grinding machine, then the other three companies cannot be competitive in the market.”
If the company chooses to invest time and resources to achieve this, aluminum and plastic packaging may become more economical and more sustainable.
In the past few years, people have become more aware of the destructive effects of plastic pollution. Companies and consumers responded by promoting recycling programs, providing incentives to reduce and reuse waste, and supporting recycling-centric legislation.
But according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, plastic usage and pollution will nearly triple in the next 20 years; therefore, the shift to sustainable materials is more important than ever for individuals and industries. At a time when the public is strongly demanding more environmentally friendly and green options, brand owners are moving away from plastic packaging and turning to alternatives, especially aluminum.
Aluminum has long been touted as the preferred beverage packaging because of its infinite recyclability. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are selling aluminum canned water as part of their efforts to reduce plastic waste. At the 2020 Super Bowl, 50,000 plastic beer glasses were replaced by aluminum substitutes.
But plastic containers may also become "green" alternatives, as companies are looking for ways to incorporate recycled content into their packaging and create infrastructure to achieve this goal.
Will the future of recycling belong to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage containers, or will aluminum continue to gain a foothold in the market, replacing more and more plastic and other beverage containers, such as glass and steel?
Compared with aluminum, the recycling rate of PET and plastic is extremely low. According to the latest data released by the National Association of PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) in Charlotte, North Carolina, the U.S. PET recycling rate in 2019 was 27.9%, a decrease of 1% from 2018, mainly because the U.S. processed more plastics domestically , Following widespread import bans on plastic waste around the world.
In contrast, the aluminum beverage can recycling data for 2019 shows that the industry recycling rate of beverage cans is 55.9%, while the consumer recycling rate of UBC is 46.1%. According to the Aluminum Association of Arlington, Virginia, although these industry and consumer data have also declined from the previous year, mainly due to production shifts, this packaging represents the recyclable economy generated by a typical single-family home. Nearly half of the value.
UBC is generally more valuable than plastic and helps to subsidize the recycling of other low-value materials. In addition, due to the uniformity of UBC, UBC is easier to recycle, and it is cheaper and less labor intensive than plastic.
UBC can also be recycled indefinitely in the closed loop process, which results in more recycled content in beverage cans than plastic cans.
However, half of all cans produced are still shipped to landfills. In 2019, 50 billion cans ended up in the waste stream, equivalent to more than US$810 million worth of aluminum, which caused significant economic and environmental losses.
When looking at plastic recycling, it is often seen as complex and chaotic. Each municipality has its own regulations on recycling plastics, which materials are acceptable, and regulations that are confusing for consumers, such as whether the caps are left on the bottles. The pollution levels associated with plastic packaging are also often higher, and there is a lack of uniformity in packaging design and production. All these changes will result in more work and higher costs. For some plastic containers, mechanical recycling is not allowed at all due to the degree of contamination or the use of multiple types of polymers, labels and dyes.
The value of plastic and aluminum in the market depends on supply and demand trends. According to data from Platts, in June, the average price of UBC in the Midwest was US$1,692 per metric ton, while the average price of PET bottle bags on the roadside in the Midwest was US$485 per metric ton.
Compared with PET bottles, the supply of aluminum cans is also quite stable, with less extreme fluctuations in market value, and greater profit margins in the supply chain.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, PET bottle package prices have fluctuated significantly due to supply disruptions in the original market and strong export demand in late 2020/early 2021. In July 2021, the average price of post-consumer PET bottle bags in California was US$735 per metric ton, while the average price in July 2020 was US$198 per metric ton, an increase of nearly 271% year-on-year.
Part of the reason for the higher value is that UBC's raw material costs are nearly 25% to 30% higher than PET bottles of similar volume. Although aluminum processors may have higher profit margins than plastic recyclers, brand owners believe that PET has higher profit margins than aluminum. The cost of producing 12-ounce cans of soda is basically higher than the cost of producing 20-ounce bottles of soda; however, these costs are not always passed on to consumers because companies tend to charge more for higher-volume bottled sodas. High cost.
Another hot topic is the environmental impact of plastic and aluminum production. Whether it is mining bauxite to produce aluminum or fracturing to produce oil or natural gas for plastic production, both processes are harmful to the environment. Considering that more cans are recycled than bottles, and therefore less original production is required, producing an aluminum can emits approximately twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as each plastic bottle.
According to a 2016 study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the production of aluminum requires a lot of energy and has a higher carbon footprint. Each ton of cans emits 11.09 tons of carbon dioxide, while plastic bottles only emit 2.2 tons of greenhouse gases.
The recycled content of cans is higher, averaging 73%, while PET bottles are 6.2%, so it is difficult to quantify and compare the total carbon emissions of the two recycled products. Manufacturing beverage containers from recycled products is clearly the most cost-effective and environmentally sustainable solution for aluminum and plastics.
According to NAPCOR, using recycled content to produce cans can save 90% of greenhouse gas emissions, and replacing raw energy per unit of recycled PET can reduce total energy demand by 75% and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%.
If the company chooses to invest time and resources to achieve this, aluminum and plastic packaging may become more economical and more sustainable. By substituting highly recyclable aluminum for packaging made of low-recycling plastics (such as Nos. 3-7s), and adding a higher percentage of recycled content to PET plastic products, the company can move further towards a greener world .
Sarah Baltic is the managing editor of S&P Global Platts' American aluminum market, and Sarah Schneider is the editor of S&P Global Platts' American petrochemical market.
Michigan State University's remaining storage and recycling center installed a new robotic sorter to improve safety.
The Michigan State University (MSU) surplus storage and recycling center is located on the MSU campus in East Lansing, Michigan, and recently installed robotic sorters to improve the safety of its workers.
"Our main goal in buying this sorter is to reduce the risk of illness or injury at our material recycling facility (MRF)," said David Smith, the facility's recycling director. "We are not like a larger facility; we organize everything by hand, which will reduce the damage that may occur as a result."
The recycling center mainly serves the campus of Michigan State University. The 18,758-square-foot facility employs three full-time employees and 20 part-time students. Smith said that MRF processes up to 9 million pounds of materials each year, including plastic, metal, fiber, and glass for campuses.
The sorter is purchased from Amp Robotics and can perform 80 sorting per minute. Smith said that the sorter can also learn about other regional items that are not common in the recycling stream. This includes things like the square orange juice refill containers on campus, which are common at Michigan State University but not common elsewhere. This information is then sent to a global database for robots to learn and adapt for future use.
Smith said the plant purchased a $250,000 sorter through a grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) Department of Environmental Quality.
Two years ago, when his manual sorter encountered a bottle full of controlled substances, Smith started working on a robotic sorter. The bottle is safely removed, but if it breaks, it could have a serious impact on the facility, Smith said.
“We run the objects along the production line and sort them by hand. Although we have a clean stream, sometimes we still encounter sharp objects or medical waste. We wear gloves to protect us, but we are still vulnerable to cuts and injuries. The impact of other security issues," Smith said. "We don't have many accidents."
Other reasons for MRF to purchase robotic sorters include increasing productivity, expanding the collection capacity of the facility, and improving recycling education for students and professors on campus.
"We want to make this facility a learning laboratory for our faculty, staff and students. We have some professors who are eager to study it and want to know how to integrate it into their classrooms," Smith said. "The sorter will also help us generate new logistics for the facility."
Robot sorters can also help alleviate some of the problems caused by the recruitment crisis affecting the waste and recycling industries. Currently, this sorter is acting as the main sorter for MRF on its plastic and metal production lines.
"The sorter can replace up to four people at MRF," Smith said. "At present, we have only replaced two workers, but this may change in the future."
The company says that Jevan Anderson brings more than 30 years of experience to the position.
Rubicon, a waste and recycling software provider based in Lexington, Kentucky, announced that it has hired Jevan Anderson as its new chief financial officer.
According to Rubicon, Anderson will oversee the company's end-to-end financial operations, including the development of financial infrastructure, teams and processes to promote the company's growth. He will also become a member of the company's executive leadership team.
"Jevan is a valuable addition to the leadership team we have established at Rubicon," said Nate Morris, the founder and CEO of Rubicon. "He brings an impressive investment portfolio, proven financial leadership and M&A transaction experience, which will drive our continued growth in the software, waste and recycling industries."
Rubicon stated that it is helping its customers and partners move away from the traditional landfill model and turn to circular solutions that slow the accumulation of waste and its harmful by-products.
"Rubicon is transforming one of the oldest industries in existence by digitizing one of the last unconnected markets," Anderson said. "Waste caused by businesses and individuals is changing with each passing day. The entire Rubicon team is working hard to push our partners and customers towards more circular solutions. I am very happy to join Rubicon at this critical moment and help the company achieve the ultimate goal of eliminating waste."
Anderson has 30 years of experience in corporate leadership, financial consulting, investment banking, corporate development and strategy consulting. He came to Rubicon from Finjan Holdings, a network security company headquartered in New York, where he served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA degree from the Stern School of Business of New York University.
The association stated that these guidelines will close the loop between packaging designers and plastic recyclers.
The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) in Washington has announced an updated version of the APR polyethylene (PE) film packaging plastic recyclability design guidelines. The association stated that the new guidelines were developed by a working group of the APR Film Recycling Committee and reflect the consensus of film recyclers, processors and brand owners.
Steve Alexander, President and CEO of APR, said: "These changes are consistent with our efforts to ensure that the APR Design Guidelines serve as a basic reference document that brand owners can use to meet global market needs and recycling standards." With the explosion of global brand owners’ commitment to sustainability, more detailed design guidelines address urgent needs."
According to APR's press release, these updates are part of a larger program supported by the Recycling Partnership's Film and Flex Alliance to improve the capture and recycling of plastic film packaging. Other goals of the APR and Falls Church, Virginia recycling partnership include encouraging more residential collection and recycling of film, developing design guidelines for polypropylene film, and studying the suitability of roadside recycled film plastic.
"PE film and flexible packaging are a fast-growing area for consumer brands," said Sandi Childs, director of film and flexible packaging at APR. "The ability to measure recycling compatibility is critical to maintaining the flow of clean materials from retail store bins and possibly from residential curbside collection to recyclers in the future."