As a means to increase the collection and recycling rate of beverage packaging, deposit return plans have attracted more and more attention. STADLER has the expertise to help recycling facilities improve the quality and purity of the output of materials collected through these programs, contributing to the circular economy. Dr. Benjamin Eule, Director of STADLER UK, explained the method.
With the increasing pressure to promote the transition to a circular economy, the need to solve the problem of beverage packaging waste has become more and more urgent.
"In the UK, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set high recycling targets for the country in its resource and waste strategy. The waste management industry will need to increase the quantity of collected materials and the quality of output in order to It can re-enter the production cycle and close the cycle of circular economy," said Dr. Benjamin Eule, Director of STADLER UK.
According to Defra, “U.K. consumers estimate that 14 billion plastic beverage bottles, 9 billion beverage cans, and 5 billion glass bottles are used each year. Although plastic bottles are completely recyclable, the recent packaging recycling rate shows that there is a significant Improvements. In the recycling of beverage containers."
In the resource and waste strategy released in 2018, the government set ambitious goals to promote the transition to a circular economy. These include the United Kingdom’s goal of recycling 77% of single-use plastic bottles placed on the market by weight by 2025 and 90% by 2029. To support this effort, it plans to increase the recycling rate of beverage containers and reduce littering in the UK. Currently, it is evaluating the relevant time (expected to be between 2022 and 2024) and the results of the negotiation on the rollout method.
An effective classification system is essential for the deposit rebate program to reach its potential
In order for DRS to realize its potential in solving the problem of beverage packaging waste and effectively promoting the circular economy, it needs to be supplemented by an efficient sorting process. This is the key to obtaining a high-quality final product that can compete with the original materials on the market.
STADLER can completely change how DRS materials successfully return to the production cycle. “We understand the combination of materials that must be dealt with and the challenges that result from it,” explains Dr. Eule. "The main problem with sorted beverage packaging is to avoid cross-contamination to achieve the high purity required for recycling. What this means depends on how the DRS materials are collected. If they come from a reverse vending machine, there is very little contamination, mainly to achieve Optimal output quality. If this is not the case, the DRS material must be separated from other recyclables or material streams, and some cleaning pretreatment is required."
STADLER also has a wealth of process technology knowledge: "As part of the circular economy, we can flexibly design the sorting equipment, which will provide the quality and purity of the DRS mixture, ready to be returned directly to the product. We can provide PET and metal beverages Container design and installation of mechanical pretreatment and material concentration. According to the requirements of the processing plant, this can be an independent facility or can provide pretreatment for secondary processing. Together with our partner Krones, we can provide complete machinery Pretreatment and flake washing equipment solutions, this will be an ideal choice for PET blends. In addition, we can evaluate the impact on existing MRF and PRF, which will cause part of its input material to be transferred by DRS, so it needs to rebalance its existing The processing flow of the facility."
STADLER cooperates with the well-known brand KRONES in the food and beverage industry, aiming to use the advantages of plastic recycling to benefit customers as simply and profitably as possible, providing complete packaging-from sorting to cleaning process, to create a new plastic product.
STADLER's rich expertise and experience enable it to identify new requirements and design solutions to solve these problems. For example, in the state-of-the-art project for the complete modernization of the PET sorting plant of RCS Rohstoffverwertung GmbH, a recycling management company in Wayne, Germany, it identified a new need to remove bottle labels before sorting and developed a new Label Remover to provide The solution.
STADLER also designed and built a large-capacity automated factory for Dansk Retursystem, which operates a Danish beverage bottle and can storage and recycling system, with the goal of recycling as much as possible into new ones. "This fully automatic equipment can flexibly handle large volumetric flow mixing bottles and tanks, and allows customers to choose different operating modes according to their requirements," explained Dr. Eule. At the end of the production line, the baler compacts aluminum cans on one output line and PET bottles on the other output line.
There is still a long way to go in solving the problem of beverage packaging waste. However, companies such as STADLER have the technology and expertise to help the recycling industry make significant progress in achieving a true circular economy.
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