Vernon, California, USA, October 29, 2018: Rplanet Earth is a new company dedicated to the closed-loop recycling of waste plastics, has launched a large-scale infrastructure, the world's first one-stop integration of PET packaging waste into finished RPET products factory,
Its product characteristics are comparable to those made from native PET. Rplanet Earth Co-CEO Joseph Ross (left) and
Robert Daviduk (right) The 302,000-square-foot (28,060-square-metre) plant in California State collects bottles, flip containers and other packaging waste from the roadside; grinds them into thin slices and is strictly washed and decontaminated through a series of sorting and cleaning procedures; The characteristic viscosity (IV) of the material is increased according to the end-use requirements, and it is processed into food grade plates, thermoforming containers and injection molded preforms for bottles.
The new Rplanet Earth Plant has an annual production capacity of 8, 0 lbs (36,290 metric tons). So far, the total investment in Vernon has exceeded $100 million. According to Robert Daviduk, co-chief executive of Rplanet Earth, it is planned to add a second packaging line to the final product within the plant over the next two years. ' Utility equipment and other infrastructure are in place to support the new production line, which has a greater production capacity than the existing production line 50%, ' Mr. Daviduk said. Our company plans to build three or more new plants in other parts of the United States and other countries.
' Co-chief executive Joseph Ross points out that in addition to recycling PET, rplanet Earth can meet other sustainability goals. Although the appearance, purity and physical properties of the RPET packaging we produce are comparable to native PET, our carbon content is 60% lower than that of the original resin packaging and is actually lower than the RPET products of other companies 20%, ' Mr. Ross said. He added that the figures would take into account roadside collection, packaging and transportation, as well as the operation of the Vernon plant. In addition, our recycling business uses 90% less water per unit of production compared to PET resin plants.
' The Vernon plant currently has a range of state-of-the-art recycling and polymer processing systems, including three welex® sheet production lines provided by Graham Engineering Corporation, and is equipped with extrusion from Nordson Corporation Dies
industries® extrusion die Head and bkg® melt Conveyor assembly.
Integrated processes for recycling and reuse After entering the outer packaging of the Rplanet Earth plant is divided into separate bottles and thermoforming streams, the material passes through multiple sorting procedures. The magnetization separator can remove foreign bodies such as wires; near-infrared scanners identify pet and separate it from other polymers; and the other sorting step separates pet materials by color. Next is the drying system, which is used to grind the material into thin slices; and to avoid contact with water, as it is the carrier of inks and adhesives that can have a negative impact on the quality of the finished product RPET. Material in contact with water for the first time in the cleaning line, after cleaning here, the material will be moved to the water tank, in the water tank, those heavier than the weight of the pet will sink, while removing labels, adhesives and other substances.
The sheet then enters the Krones metapure® reactor, where the temperature of approximately °c is used for heating and vacuum treatment during the final purification process; Depending on the target application, solid state polymerization (SSP) raises the IV of the RPET to various levels. Rplanet Earth cancels the granulation process, which is conducive to adding the processing value of thin slices to its own internal plastic processing line. ' We avoided the impact on the appearance of our products by skipping RPET granulation because we completely avoided melting steps that could have a negative impact on color, ' Mr. Daviduk said. Our customers are looking for products from truly closed-loop recycling systems.
He points out that rplanet Earth can provide sheet, thermoforming packaging or prefabricated parts with a rPET content of up to 100%, depending on whether the customer needs a certain percentage of native PET. The company currently operates seven plastic processing lines: Two Husky injection molding systems for the production of prefabricated parts, three Welex extrusion lines for the production of coil sales to the retail market, or for internal use in two large Lyle thermoforming machines.
Thermal molding products produced by rplanet Earth may include drinking cups, product packaging, flip containers, and almost any other food-grade thermoforming packaging currently made from PET. The three Welex sheet production lines provided by Graham Engineering include extruders up to 75 inches (190 cm) wide and can be configured for co-extrusion;
Graham Engineering also offers thickness scanners, trimming systems, rewinding machines and other equipment.