Extrusion International USA 1-2021

20 Extrusion International 1/2021 INDUSTRY NEWS EREMA Group erema-group.com „ The recycling of PET bottles has gained worldwide accep- tance over the past 20 years and has become a model for the circular economy in plastics. This development has been driven forward by EREMA’s bottle-to-bottle innovations. The Austrian recycling machine manufacturer has set new standards in this respect time and again, particularly with their VACUREMA ® technology, which is the heart of the new VACUNITE ® process. As a result, PET bottles with a high recy- clate content – a feature indicated clearly on the label – are now an increasingly common sight on shop shelves. The de- mand for EREMA’s innovative PET recycling technologies is growing worldwide across the entire PET segment. “Despite declining sales of beverages due to the Corona pandemic and a tense situation in the recycling industry ac- counted for by the fall in the price of virgin material, inter- est in our PET recycling technologies remains high,” reports Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager at EREMA Group GmbH. One of the reasons for this is the advanced technologies that combine high product safety, stable pro- cesses and cost effectiveness. Another reason is that all well- known brand manufacturers, policy makers and society in general are now committed to making plastics recycling and the circular economy work. The EU has set out its position on this topic with targets for recycling quotas and minimum recycling levels in PET bottles. EREMA estimates the total capacity of all PET recycling ma- chines sold to date for various applications at 2.6 million tonnes per year, with the recent trend pointing clearly to- wards large-scale systems processing 2,000 kg/h upwards. EREMA is particularly satis fi ed with the market success of the innovative VACUNITE ® technology, which rede fi nes the benchmark for performance in bottle-to-bottle. In just under two years, the energy-ef fi cient system, developed in cooper- ation with Polymetrix, has already been sold to 13 customers worldwide. The VACUNITE ® process combines vacuum and nitrogen technology, ensures maximum decontamination ef fi ciency and, with the best rPET colour values, also ensures that higher proportions of rPET are possible in the bottle end product. Growth is driven by more than the positive development of the bottle-to-bottle sector. Processing PET fl akes directly into preforms ( fl akes-to-preform) or fi lm in a single processing step and especially into recycled pellets for the textile indus- try (bottle-to-POY) also boosts demand in this segment. In total, EREMA was able to deliver 42 plants with a total capac- ity of 643,000 t/a within one year between October 2019 and October 2020. In order to develop and implement closed-loop systems com- parable to the bottle-to-bottle cycle for other types of pack- aging, EREMA is involved in various research projects such as PET2PACK and CORNETPolyCycle. PET2PACK is working on the development of PET rigid recyclates that are approved for use in food packaging. The Trend is Towards Big Plants and the Highest Quality Recyclate Michael Heitzinger (Managing Director, EREMA) Christoph Wöss (Business Development Manager EREMA Group GmbH) and Patrich Rachinger (Product Group Manager, EREMA) at the site of the new customer centre, where a VACUNITE system for material test runs is being installed (Photo: EREMA) PLA Compounds – Contribution to the EU Green Deal 2030s „ As a branch of AKRO-PLASTIC, BIO-FED is the specialist for innovative and application-oriented biocompounds. The product portfolio under the trade name M•VERA ® is con- stantly being expanded with new products. The company is developing and supplying now a wide range of sustainable PLA-based compounds. The European Green Deal is a concept presented by the Eu- ropean Commission in December 2019 with the aim of reduc- ing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the EU by 2050 Application example of environment-friendly cosmetics packaging