PET recycling with Krones MetaPure
The Krones MetaPure procedure offers the freedom to decide which end product is to be created. Flakes, pellets or preforms
Many renowned soft drink manufacturers place great importance on the subject of sustainability. Nowadays, companies already have numerous obligations when using recycled PET in new beverage containers. At the interpack, Krones AG in Neutraubling will be presenting its MetaPure, a PET recycling system concept which has already been tried and tested many times in practice. The MetaPure bottle-to-bottle recycling system is a future-proof solution which combines environmental awareness and economy in the PET manufacturing and processing sequence for the best possible results.
1.9 kilogrammes of crude oil are required and 2.2 kilogrammes of CO2 are released to manufacture one kilogramme of PET. According to a study from the IFEU Institute, beverage manufacturers who use flakes from recycled PET for new bottles improve their ecological footprint considerably: greenhouse gas omissions alone are reduced by 69.5 percent compared to crude-oil bottle production. This means that PET recycling reduces CO2 omissions, saves energy, is gentle on renewable resources and has a reduced environmental impact when compared to non-renewable resources.
With the MetaPure, Krones offers turn-key systems or can integrate individual modules in existing lines, and is the only supplier of a continuous system for the entire process. The MetaPure is suitable for brand manufacturers, private label bottlers, converters and recyclers. This process turns used PET containers back into food-grade PET in three steps: sortation, washing, decontamination. The following applies for sortation: the poorer the quality of the input material, the higher the sorting requirement and thus the higher the costs. The washing process is the most crucial process step for the quality of the recyclate. If the washing quality is poor, this cannot be compensated in the subsequent process steps. The MetaPure therefore operates with flake decontamination as, compared with the pellet process, decontamination is quicker and requires a lower amount of energy.
Flexible: flakes, pellets or preforms
The Krones procedure gives you the freedom to decide which end product you wish to create. Flakes, pellets or preforms The decontamination step required for the material's later contact with foodstuffs is only ever performed with flakes. Afterwards, the flakes are either used directly or further processed to form PET granulate. Another extremely energy efficient use of the decontaminated flakes is the direct further processing of the material to form preforms - a highlight in the processing of PET which Krones offers with its MetaPure PET recycling system.
The European Commission has rated the environmental benefits of the Krones MetaPure very positively and is thus, as a result, supporting Krones in the introduction of its PET recycling process as part of the EU initiative "Eco-innovation". The MetaPure offers a FDA-conformant process for high-quality recycling to form food-grade PET flakes, pellets or preforms.
Photo Krones AG:
The Krones MetaPure procedure offers the freedom to decide which end product is to be created. Flakes, pellets or preforms
