Extrusion International USA 5-2022

79 Extrusion International 5/2022 "Quality and sustainability must go hand in hand for us, because this is the only way we can offer our customers circular packaging solutions and drive the change nec- essary to establish an infrastructure needed to achieve a real circular economy." To get the PET waste it needs, Faerch offers its own buyback models to customers who are able to collect the packaging again after use, such as airlines and catering companies. "For our production, this waste is a valuable raw material that we know is of the right quality." The VACUREMA ® recycling process – safe, fast and flexible Faerch has been relying on the VACUREMA® system with SafeFlake technology from Austrian recycling ma- chine manufacturer EREMA for the recycling process for the trays since mid 2018. The special feature of this set-up is that decontamination, drying and IV treatment already take place on the flake in the vacuum reactor. Only then is the material fed into the extruder. This prevents hydro - lytic and oxidative degradation of the melt in the extruder, which in turn is a prerequisite for highly clean, food contact compliant rPET trays with the best IV and colour values. The quality of the rPET pellets remains consistently high even if the parameters of the input material – such as moisture, mixture or bulk density – vary. In addition to these quality aspects, the financial arguments also clearly speak in fa - vour of this recycling process. This is because both the total costs of acquisition and use (total costs of ownership) and the energy consumption are comparatively low. "The spe- cific overall energy consumption of a VACUREMA® Prime system is only 0.295kWh/kg. This is one of the best energy efficiency values1 compared to conventional PET process - ing lines on the market," says Christoph Wöss. Plastic packaging plays an important role in the protec- tion and shelf life of food. Sustainable, circular economy solutions can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emis - sions and food waste. Faerch's tray-to-tray recycling solu- tion shows how the circular economy can work. EREMA is convinced that many will follow this example in the near future. This is because, unlike just a few years ago, there is now a broad consensus that the circular economy – and therefore recycling – has an important role to play in the transformation into a climate-neutral, resource-effi - cient and competitive industry. 1 Source: SKZ – Das Kunststoff-Zentrum, value measured at a throughput of 1650 kg/h, excluding customer's chiller for supply - ing cooling water. EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H. Unterfeldstrasse 3, 4052 Ansfelden, Austria www.erema.com Faerch A/S Rasmus Færchs Vej 1, 7500 Holstebro, Denmark www.faerch.com Thomas Bak Thellesen, Senior Director Group Sustainability & External Affairs (All picturs: copyright: Faerch A/S) Trays for fresh meat