Page 55 - FoodFocusThailand No.167 February 2020

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STRENGTHEN THE PACKAGINGGTHEN THE PACKAGING

Closed-loop Recycling

Usually, when someone decides to launch a startup company, they
start small. But not Bob Daviduk and Joe Ross. When they established
rPlanet Earth, they set up a company that recycles post-consumer PET
containers and converts the flakes into food-grade preforms, extruded
sheet, and thermoformed packaging in a single, closed-loop process.

Bob Daviduk and Joe Ross envision a world without plastic waste. we looked at some projects around the world that were already using
“It’s a very ambitious goal, but you have to aim high from day one,” explains their equipment. We were quite impressed by how mechanically sound
Bob Daviduk. Plastic is a valuable resource, but only around nine percent the equipment was and how little manual labor was involved,” says
gets recycled worldwide. The rest lands in incinerators, landfills, or worse Ross. Daviduk adds: “We believe that the German company offered
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– the environment. the most comprehensive and the best recycling system in the world.
Daviduk and Ross both hail from the United States, where daily And we fully expect the German company to live up to that.”
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consumption of single-use plastics is staggering: there’s coffee in to-go
cups, disposable cutlery, and even peeled hard-boiled eggs in plastic As One of the General Contractors
containers. But when it comes to recycling these products, things look Of course, a plant of this size needs a lot of space. rPlanet Earth
pretty grim: “In terms of sustainability, the US is an emerging market. We found that space in Vernon, California, about five miles southeast of
recycle one in five bottles give or take. In Europe, it’s closer to five out of Downtown Los Angeles. Vernon is an industrial city with its own power
ten. In Germany, it’s over 90 percent because of the deposit,” says Daviduk. company, which provides competitively priced electricity. The facility
In the US, only one-fifth of the states have adopted a deposit and sits on a 657,000 square-foot property (about 15 acres) that houses
redemption system for PET and glass bottles and cans. But where there a logistics yard for truck traffic, a covered collection area for PET
is a system in place, it works, as these statistics show: while the collection plastic bale receiving and storage, and the 302,000 square-foot plant
rate averages only about 30 percent nationally, the ten states with bottle at the heart of it all. The plant itself consists of three different sections:
deposits have raised their collection rates to an average of over 70 percent - In the front end, the feedstock is debaled and sorted using
and as high as 92 percent. multiple technologies. When the sorting is complete and only PET
So, there’s still enormous potential for deposit-refund systems to more plastic containers remain, they are then shredded.
than double or even triple the average collection rate. What is primarily in - The resulting flake enters an innovative wash line , which
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place right now, though, is curbside recycling, which is available for most removes any remaining contaminants and foreign matter and cleans
plastics, paper, and aluminum. All of these materials land in a big collection the flakes in several stages. Another sorter at the end of the wash
bin, get pre-sorted, and then sold for further processing. line ensures that only PET flakes move on to the next processing
stage.
Growing Demand for Recycled PET (rPET) Packaging - In the decontamination reactor , the flake is heated to around
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But returning bottles for recycling is just one (extremely important) part of 390 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) – depending on the
a functioning recycling process. Of course, the goal is to ultimately make target application – under a vacuum. Flake that has passed through
the best possible use of the post-consumer PET and convert it back into this step is safe and approved for direct food contact packaging. The
high-quality products. rPET flake continues right on to one of the plant’s plastics processing
And that is where rPlanet Earth comes in. The company’s two founders lines, where it is converted into preforms or extruded sheet. The latter
have recognized the market’s enormous potential. “I have been in the is also used as the basis for producing thermoformed containers
plastics industry for over twenty years. Unfortunately, most people don’t downstream.
give any thought to what happens to plastic once it’s been used. So, our This closed loop is both extremely compact and highly complex
goal is to produce plastic packaging for a broad array of consumer and is ultimately what sets rPlanet Earth apart. “The setup was
packaged goods (CPG) companies and then be able to take that used important for us for a couple of reasons. One is because, as far as
plastic and turn it right back into the same product,” explains Joe Ross. we know, it gives us the lowest carbon footprint for packaging
Bob Daviduk adds: “There is strong demand for rPET across almost every worldwide,” explains Bob Daviduk. “Another is that it just made sense
CPG company, but not enough material. The market is growing fast. A few for us to have everything under a single roof because it’s a more
years ago, most companies were satisfied if their preforms had 25 percent efficient process. At rPlanet Earth, our goal is to have the lightest
recycled content, and now many are saying they want 100 percent. Many possible impact on the environment, on our planet Earth.”
brand owners see that as their contribution to protecting the environment
and promoting sustainability,” says Bob Daviduk. And that is why the two Skipping the Pellets
entrepreneurs decided to start up a company that converts used PET rPlanet Earth bypasses the traditional step of pelletizing, instead using
containers back into new food-grade packaging – an ambitious project for the flake directly in its own plastics production. Together with the
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a start-up. German company , the company developed a process in which the
Once they had secured financing, Daviduk and Ross began to look still-hot flake is converted into product in three sheet extrusion and
at technology and equipment in earnest. And it was purely by coincidence two injection molding machines. That reduces the amount of time the
that rPlanet Earth found the German company who are the recycling PET is heated, which benefits both material quality and energy
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experts. efficiency. To ensure that everything went smoothly, rPlanet Earth
The German company served as one of the general contractors, placed high importance on having a German project lead on site all
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integrating the front end for sorting and shredding the post-consumer PET the time in the early stages not only to make sure everything was
containers, its own cleaning and decontamination modules, and all installed properly but also to do any necessary fine tuning and
pneumatic material conveyance. The line processes approximately 6,600 immediate troubleshooting during the initial stages of operation.
pounds of PET per hour. “Before we decided on the German company ,
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