With the rise in consumption of raw materials, plastic processors are facing higher political and social demands to use a greater proportion of recycled materials. Companies such as MultiPet GmbH, a recycling company which processes used PET materials into flakes, make this transition possible. Along with their sister company Multiport, which specialises in making HDPE compounds from packaging waste, they are considered important suppliers of secondary raw materials for the plastics processing industry.
MultiPet GmbH is part of Veolia, a globally active environmental service provider. MultiPet processes discarded PET bottles and trays into high-quality recycled PET flakes that are pure enough to be used by plastic processors to create new products and containers.
How does the PET recycling process work?
MultiPet receives pressed bales of pre-sorted PET waste. After the bales are broken up, plastics are first checked for impurities, then ground into flakes and intensively washed.
The FLAKE PURIFIER+ multi-sensor sorting systems from Sesotec come into play directly after the ground material has undergone a two-stage density separation process involving two rounds of hot washing. At this stage, the sorting systems separate discoloured materials, foreign plastics and metals from the flakes.
Sesotec FLAKE PURIFIER+ units are designed especially for use in plastic flake processing and are characterized above all by ease of operation and heightened throughput capacities.
At MultiPet, the FLAKE PURIFIER+ systems are equipped with multiple sensors for colour and material recognition. This enables MultiPet to produce PET flakes in batches of different colours and qualities for use as raw materials in the plastics processing industry. By using recyclates produced by MultiPet, plastic processors are reducing their CO2 footprint, contributing to climate protection and conserving resources.
“Sesotec’s processing technology enables us to keep the loss of good material to a minimum”, says Herbert Snell, Managing Director of MultiPet GmbH. “This makes our sorting processes even more efficient.“ Sesotec‘s scope of delivery was complemented by a turn-key material handling setup which included steel work platforms and material conveyance systems, simplifying integration into the overall system.