Extrusion International 6-2023-USA

57 Extrusion International 6/2023 is a special and unique moment. After all, our very first Lindner washing plant went to Bulgaria, and continues to run with all the components we supplied in 2013, which must be due to the excellent maintenance and quality of the components,” says Harald Hoffmann, Managing Director of Lindner Washtech. This is a part- nership that has developed in many positive directions over the years. For instance, Vadias played an impor- tant role in many Lindner Washtech innovations, such as the Rafter or the Film Examiner. Most of the newly developed products were tested in the field at Vadias. With the foundation of Blueone Solutions in August 2023, Lindner and Erema made it their goal to adapt their individual process steps in plastics recycling to their mutual requirements in order to use synergies more ef- ficiently. Ten years ago, Vadias first opted for the Lind - ner Washtech/Erema duo. “With Lindner Washtech and Erema, we put our trust in two brand manufacturers from the word go, and we would certainly do so again from today’s point of view,” says Vasil Asparouhov, then Managing Director of Vadias and responsible for building up and developing the company. In total, Vadias today processes 4,000 tonnes of raw material and produces 2,850 tonnes of granulate every month. “Our Erema extruders have been part of the recy- clingprocess fromday one. Since2019, they arealsobeing used at the Vadias production site in Serbia, which, since 2022, is operated together with a Lindner shredder and Lindner wash components. We are always happy to see just how successful our customers are with our processes and products,” says Clemens Kitzberger, Business De- velopment Manager Post Consumer Recycling at Erema Group, who is proud of this long-standing partnership. “We are very grateful for the long, and most of all con- structive, cooperation. The brothers Vasil and Asparouh Asparouhov have always had a hands-on role in the com- pany and, over the last 10 years, have built a fantastic company with their team. I have a lot of respect for their achievement, and, as a company, we are grateful to be part of this success story,” adds Harald Hoffmann. Lindner Washtech GmbH Haeldenfeld 4, 71723 Grossbottwar, Germany www.lindner-washtech.com Recycled Big Bags Made in T ü rkiye Gaziantep-based big bag producer Prof Sentetik manufactures big bags with recycled polypropylene. To meet the high standards for heavy-duty tape fabric, Starlinger’s eqoCLEAN melt filter at the tape extrusion line ensures the purity of the melt. B ig bags, also called FIBCs, are omnipresent in logis- tics as a lightweight and economical type of packag- ing for free-flowing bulk goods. Made predominantly from polypropylene (PP), they show a CO 2 balance per 1,000 litres of transported goods that is far below that of rigid containers such as drums or octabins. Turkish big bag producer Prof Sentetik is making them even more sustainable by adding post-industrial and post- consumer PP waste in the production of various types of big bags. The company has recently installed Starlinger equipment for woven PP bag and big bag production, including a Starlinger PP tape production line equipped with the new eqoCLEAN filter system for processing re - cycled granulate. With this new tape extrusion line, Prof Sentetik produces PP tapes for FIBC fabric with recycled polypropylene (rPP) that meet all the specifications re - quired for heavy-duty packaging applications. “Plastic waste is a valuable resource, and instead of depositing it in landfills or incinerating it, it should be used in the best possible way”, said Fahri Şengül, Gen - eral Manager of Prof Sentetik. “For us, Starlinger’s ho- listic approach to packaging production is very helpful. Being a supplier of both production machinery for wo- ven plastic packaging and plastics recycling equipment, they understand the product cycle of plastic packaging from the beginning right to the end. They know how to produce high-quality recycled plastics, and their woven packaging production equipment is designed for pro- cessing virgin as well as recycled input materials, even if they stem from post-consumer plastic waste.” Starlinger’s SPB filter ensures the high melt purity required for heavy-duty rPP tape production (Pictures ©Starlinger)