In Mexico, Italian solutions help a local plant to recycle

The design, based on the best washing technology, produces flakes for making new PET bottles. Demanding specifications are followed to obtain the purest standards for RPET material.

The plant, part of a project amounting to $35 million started by Petstar in early 2009, has hourly output of 3,000 kg of finished RPET products.

Following washing, RPET flakes are converted to granules for bottle-to-bottle application through the Bühler SSP (Solid State Processing) plant. Post-consumer bottles in Mexico are extremely dirty; most come directly from landfills and are not collected curbside or through deposit-refund systems.

The whole bottle pre-washing system uses hot high-friction washing. Using minimal detergent and special water distribution technology, sterilization is achieved. Savings are realized in operational costs -- the plant requires only one liter of water for every kilogram of RPET material. Plant operation is fully automatic, controlled by a central PC, providing data on machine status, processes and devices during washing.

Petstar plans to double plant throughput with a second AMUT S.p.A. (www.amut.it) washing line, to reclaim more than 120,000,000 pounds of PET bottles annually.

Petstar S.A. de C.V.
www.gen.tv/english/reciclaje1.html

AMUT S.p.A.
www.amut.it