The development of industry and modern technologies have made everyday life easier for mankind, a side effect of the benefits received is pollution of nature. One of the biggest problems was plastic. Every year, every consumer acquires kilograms of plastic - bottles, bags, blisters and much more. On average, a person throws up to 90 kg of plastic per year. It was possible to reduce the risk of complete clogging by introducing recycling technologies for plastic waste. The construction of recycling plants for PET packaging began relatively recently, bottles are made from the obtained raw materials.
The first in Russia
Plastic processing plant "Plarus" was opened in the city of Solnechnogorsk (Moscow region). Construction began in 2007, the launch of the enterprise took place in 2009. The company uses bottle-to-bottle technology, which is based on the processing of PET packaging.
The main raw materials are plastic bottles. The uniqueness of the process is the ability to obtain high-quality raw materials suitable for the production of food packaging.
Resource Innovation
The initiator of the creation of a site for the productive disposal of plastic waste was the union of Europlast enterprises. The organization believes that the opening of such technological lines will allow the introduction of non-waste production.
According to some reports, today PET bottles account for 60% of all garbage. The Plarus enterprise produces reconditioned PET plastic (granulate) of the highest quality, which is confirmed by the conclusions of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare.
Plant capacity
The plastic processing plant employs 180 people. The technological cycle consists of three stages, each of them is carried out in a separate workshop. For a month, the company processes 1.5 tons of PET raw materials; a full load will allow to process 2.5 tons of bottles. The finished products of the enterprise are called granular polyethylene terephthalate, sold under the TM Clear Pet. The monthly production is 850 tons of crystalline plastic and about 900 tons of plastic flakes, provided that the capacities are fully loaded.
The plastic processing plant has installed high-tech equipment from leading European manufacturers, which have long introduced the practice of recycling solid waste. The main suppliers of the lines are BUHLER AG from Switzerland, German equipment from BRT Recycling Technologie GmbH, RTT Steinert GmbH and BRT Recycling, Technologie GmbH, BOA from Holland, Italian lines from SOREMA.
Where do they get the raw materials?
For a couple of years after the launch, the plastic processing plant experienced a shortage of raw materials, often there were stops. At the moment, part of the necessary plastic is purchased from various organizations from fitness clubs to hotels, but this amounts to no more than 1% of the total demand. The main source of the required volume are municipal landfills and landfills for solid waste disposal.
The number of suppliers is constantly growing, plastic waste is being transported even from distant lands, such as the Urals or Crimea. Every entrepreneur capable of organizing manual sorting of garbage at his site can become a partner of the plant. From the entire mass of waste, it is necessary to choose PET plastic, pack it and deliver it to the place of processing. One bale of compressed bottles weighs about 300 kg on average. The collection and sorting of garbage by private traders is encouraged financially, for 1 ton of plastic the price reaches 8 thousand rubles.
Separation of household waste
Another promising source of plastic can be the population, for this it is necessary to introduce waste sorting into daily life. The first steps have already been taken on this path. An experiment to collect plastic bottles was introduced in Solnechnogorsk.
The initiators of it were the Plarus plant, the City Administration and the Russian branch of Coca-Cola. The program has installed metal mesh drives, where the population can dump plastic waste. As they are filled, a car arrives from the factory and picks up trash.
First stage
The technological cycle of plastic recycling consists of three stages - sorting, crushing, granulation. The most time-consuming process is sorting. At this point, the bottles are sorted by color. Primary separation occurs on an automatic line. Upon receipt, the bottles are translucent and divided into several bins. To date, the bulk of PET packaging is available in green, transparent, brown, blue.
At the plastic processing plant, automatic sorting is performed twice. Some bottles are so dirty that the technique cannot determine their color and rejects. This volume, with an indefinite color, undergoes additional manual sorting. Further, the raw materials spaced in colors are pressed into 200 kg bales and transported to the next workshop.
Part of the obtained raw materials is not suitable for processing. Rejected packaging, the production of which used too many dyes, is also not subject to processing red, white and neon plastic.
Second phase
In the second workshop of the factory for processing plastic bottles, the pressed cube of plastic is broken, passed through a metal detector, the raw materials with the inclusion of metal are rejected. Next, the plastic is loaded into the washing machine, where washing takes place in harsh environments using acids and alkalis. At this point, it is important to separate the label from the bottle. Some manufacturers use adhesives that are not very degradable, especially for shrink labels.
The washed raw materials are conveyed by the conveyor to the crusher for plastic; lids and plastic labels are used. At this technological stage, the shredded plastic is also sorted by color, this is done automatically using a computer program on a special device. The resulting intermediate is called flakes, flex or agglomerate.
When cutting dust is formed, it is filtered in special columns equipped with filters. The water used for washing goes through a cleaning cycle and returns to the workshop again.
Final process
The final procedure begins with another crushing of flex. The PET film is passed through a grinder, dust is mechanically screened out along the way, after which the raw material is fed into the extruder. In the apparatus, the crushed flex is heated to a temperature of 280 ° C, additional cleaning takes place - large elements and harmful substances are removed.
The molten plastic reaches the next apparatus, the die. With its help, the material is squeezed out through openings of a certain diameter to obtain thin threads. They go through the cooling and slicing processes, the result of this stage are transparent granules. Semi-finished granulate is loaded into a tower, 50 m high, where it is subjected to nitrogen treatment at high temperature. This process takes 16 hours, at the exit the granulate gets the necessary viscosity, mass and becomes cloudy.
After cooling, the finished product is packed in large bags and sent to the customer. The shelf life of finished products obtained in the process of plastic recycling is 1 year. Unclaimed raw materials are suitable for the processing process. The plant is adjacent to the Europlast company, which is engaged in the production of plastic containers and packaging.
Fields of application
Granulate plastic is used in the following industries:
- Chemical fiber.
- Non-woven materials (synthetic winterizer, polyester, etc.).
- Building materials, details.
- Common consumption goods.
- Additive to basic raw materials in order to obtain additional properties.
Sometimes we don’t notice that in everyday life we use products made from recycled plastic. For example, a total of 20 recycled plastic bottles is enough to make 1 T-shirt from polyester.
How to join?
In many cities of Russia, special containers are gradually appearing to collect sorted household waste. Public environmental organizations are joining the process of agitation of the population, city administrations are conducting actions, private points for receiving plastic are appearing.
Today, many people are aware of the existence of environmental problems due to the accumulation of waste and are set to actively participate in overcoming it. The initiative is picked up by the masses when the results and interest of the participants in the process are visible. In particular, this is expressed in the regular export of collected material, which does not always happen.
One of the incentives for collecting PET film is to accept plastic bottles for a cash reward. There are solid prices for the purchase of plastic from the population, estimated prices - 17-19 rubles per kilogram. It is preferable to take recyclables washed, without labels and without volume (to press each bottle).
What is taken into account when taking?
The price of accepting plastic bottles varies depending on the amount delivered. This is the rare case when the wholesale costs more, and if the raw materials are delivered directly to the production by the supplier’s transport, the remuneration received will be even higher. When sorting, you need to know what is accepted for processing and what is not yet subject to recycling.
At the plastic collection point, bottles with certain marks are accepted. You can see this marking directly on the product, it is applied in the form of a triangle with a number in the middle, which indicates the type of plastic. Products marked with numbers 3, 6 or 7 are suitable for processing.
If there is no desire to look for numbers, then you can focus on external indicators. The most popular raw materials are transparent PET plastic, they will be happy to receive it at any collection point for plastic bottles. The price for them is higher than for colored products. Another important condition is the size of the label - it should not occupy more than half the area, otherwise it should be removed independently.
Brightly colored, opaque, opaque bottles are not recyclable. The technology has not yet been developed, but environmentalists and chemists do not lose hope for its early appearance and implementation. Ultimately, the buyer influences the manufacturers of the goods and their packaging. In the event that the demand for products in unsuitable plastic is reduced, the price of the issue will consist in the flexibility of management and its ability to switch to environmental materials for packaging.
How to open a PET collection point?
Starting a business to collect PET plastic is quite simple - it does not require long-term paperwork and major investments in the material base. At the first stage, it is enough to register the IP (PBUL). A list of documents (TIN, passport, application, list of activities) is provided to the tax service, the enterprise will be open within 1-2 weeks.
What will be required to organize the process:
- A room, often a large enough empty garage, to open a recycling center. With an increase in the volume of delivered material, it will be necessary to expand to the warehouse.
- The main requirements for the temporary storage place are the lack of moisture, a sufficient amount of light.
- The list of necessary equipment includes: floor scales to determine the weight of the delivered raw materials, a press to reduce its volume.
- Lorry or passenger car with trailer.
- Local advertising - collecting bottles on your own is not difficult, but it takes time and is not part of the business process. The best option would be to post announcements on the boards near the entrances of residential buildings, in educational institutions and in the immediate vicinity of the place where the new recycling center has opened.
Perhaps in the future you will have a desire to open your own manufacturing company for the production of recycled PET plastic. Such a business not only brings income, but also helps to make our planet cleaner.