The market for recycled plastics is booming. The Republic Services Polymer Center in Las Vegas is to contribute to meeting this demand with an expected annual output of more than 50,000 tons of recycled plastics. To achieve these ambitious goals, Republic Services is relying on the technology and expertise of Krones. A linked system with two different input streams now produces high-quality washed PET recyclate and a color sorted PE/PP fraction.
About half of the throughput volume is a PE/PP fraction, which will be sold to Blue Polymers, a joint venture that Republic Services established in 2023, in the form of bales that are pure in terms of color and type.
“We chose Krones because we think we’re going to produce the cleanest and highest-value product in the marketplace,” said Pete Keller, Republic Services Vice President, Recycling & Sustainability. “We consistently heard that the Krones wash line produced the highest-quality rPET flake. These systems give us the ability to produce both food-grade and color-sorted materials in a way that hasn’t been available to the market in the past, enabling greater material circularity.”
As a turnkey specialist, Krones supplied the entire line, from the sorting system and the granulators to the washing line and flake sorting, all the way through to utilities such as compressed air generation, water treatment and wastewater treatment. Following the successful commissioning in December 2023, the plant has now also passed the final acceptance test with flying colors. “Krones is very fortunate to be working with a customer like Republic who is a leader in their perspective industry. Years of experience managing and operating plants in the recycling industry has made the transition to processing post-consumer plastics as smooth a process as you could ask for.” says Jon Larson, Head of Product Sales at Krones Inc.
