AUTOSORT™ and AUTOSORT™ FLAKE allow the recycler business to sort and recover more than 30,000 tons/year of PET containers by color and material type and create crystal, green or light blue PET flakes and HDPE flakes of different sizes and colors. Moreover, Reciclar produces food-grade PET recyclates from post-consumer PET bottles. Thanks to the purity levels achieved, recyclers can further process them into high-quality PET and HDPE recyclates for the production of new packaging and bottles with increased recycled content, therefore supporting an environmentally friendly resource management and production in Argentina.
The plastic recycling challenge is undoubtedly a global problem in which all are involved and in Latin America, the task is not a minor one. For this reason, TOMRA Recycling Sorting and Reciclar, S.A., two important companies in the recycling sector are joining forces to contribute to environmental actions in the region in order to extend the life cycle of plastics. Both companies seek to maximize the use of recycled plastic through commitment, innovation and dedication.
According to this mission, Reciclar recently installed additional TOMRA equipment in order to meet the recycling challenges in Argentina. A ECOPLAS report estimates that the total volume of plastic recycled in 2021 amounted to 307,000 tonnes of plastics, an increase of 11% compared to 2020.
The plant founded by Marcelino Casella, which is specialized in collecting, sorting and recycling waste for the last 28 years, only recently added 2 new AUTOSORT™ FLAKE units to its operation to produce crystal, green or light blue PET flakes and HDPE flakes of different sizes and colors.
Thanks to TOMRA Recycling Sorting's advanced PET bottle and PET packaging sorting equipment and technology, the Argentinean company has reached a processing capacity of 600 million plastic bottles and a production of 18,000 tons of plastic pallets per year, becoming the leading company in Argentina in PET waste processing.
Recovering post-consumer PET and HDPE bottles.
Reciclar is mainly dedicated to the recovery of post-consumer material. About 95% of its operations are focused on recycling PET and HDPE obtained from waste coming from different parts of the country. Thanks to the recycling process, Reciclar S.A. obtains an ecological raw material of a quality comparable to that of virgin material, which allows the company to satisfy the needs of its most demanding customers both locally and internationally, including the United States, China, Europe and other Latin American countries.
What’s more, five years ago, Reciclar went one step further and updated its existing line with the next-generation equipment from TOMRA to expand its offering and additionally sort caps, safety rings and labels made of different materials.
Sophisticated sorting technology
By using the latest sorting technology, Reciclar is able to prevent around to 2,500 tonnes from ending up in landfills or aquatic ecosystems every month. To achieve this and at the same time maintain the high levels of product quality and purity required, Reciclar, S.A. has 3 AUTOSORT™ sorting systems for accurate and advanced detection and separation of plastic bottles in the pre-sorting stage. Further down the sorting line, 3 AUTOSORT™ FLAKE make sure that the flakes of different materials and colors are sorted accurately.
“TOMRA's machinery brings a wealth of advantages that recyclers can benefit from: AUTOSORT™ combines advanced features and technologies in a single machine. With its compact and flexible construction, AUTOSORT™ allows for a smooth integration into existing and new plants. Thanks to TOMRA Recycling Sorting's FLYING BEAM™ technology, excellent homogeneous light distribution is ensured for better detection and control over the entire belt width, resulting in higher throughput and operational efficiency. This enables the company to sort PET bottles with a high level of accuracy.” Added Julio Barrientos, TOMRA Recycling Sorting’s Sales Manager in Mexico.
AUTOSORT™ FLAKE, one of TOMRA's flake sorting machines, is the ideal solution for high-end applications where the number of contaminants is low, but the quality requirements are extremely high, such as in the recycling of bottles to PET bottles, as is done with Reciclar, S.A. It offers a unique technological combination, consisting of the high-resolution FLYING BEAM™ sensor, a full-color camera and a highly sensitive metal sensor, which allows flake sorting by both color and material.
“Activities at Reciclar have a triple impact: social, economic and ecological. In our plant we carry out a circular economy process by converting waste into recycled raw material and obtaining end products such as strapping, which are highly demanded materials for packaging. We are motivated to further consolidate our economic model, as we transform waste into products, 60% corresponding to strips that are exported to a large part of the continent.”, Nicolas Pell Richards, Reciclar S.A. Director.
