PLASTICS
55recyclinginternational.com | July/August | 2024
funding available for recyclers. Even
so, it’s not always distributed fairly.
‘The money should go to people who
are mechanically recycling, not merely
treating leftover production scrap or
down-cycling,’ the recycler argues.
‘It’s great that a bottle is turned into a
shoe sole or car mat. What comes
after that? Such products don’t have
many lifetimes and eventually get
burned or landfilled.’
Those pulling the most weight from a
nationwide perspective are the inde-
pendent collectors. ‘There are thou-
sands of mothers and fathers, some-
times entire families, collecting bot-
tles day after day,’ Rathore says. ‘It’s a
mode of survival for them, recycling
helps them stay afloat. These people
are the foundation of Indonesia’s
recycling sector. We rely on them for
most of our material. I have the
utmost respect for them.’
PATENTED CLEANING TECH
Maintaining clean equipment to maxi-
mise efficiency, especially when it
comes to extrusion, is a must for recy-
clers. ‘That’s what we’re here for,’
says Almudena Idígoras Chaumel,
engineer and sales manager of Italian
firm Petrelli. ‘Our patented ovens,
which directly heat the material build-
up from the inside, ensure a super-
fast cleaning process. It prevents
recycling lines from being inactive.’
The Italian system takes around an
hour to remove the plastic build-up.
‘Other systems take up to eight hours
so our method saves a lot of time.
This way, we can reduce energy costs
by, on average, 40%.’
Another benefit is that the Petrelli
system doesn’t overheat, which can
be a problem during cleaning. ‘Too
much heat can bend the metal and
fundamentally damage the recycling
equipment. This is not the case with
us,’ Idígoras Chaumel explains.
For recyclers who don’t have their
own cleaning system, Petrelli offers
an ‘on demand’ cleaning service. ‘We
have big players sending over their
machinery on a weekly basis. Others
prefer a contract allowing a certain
numbers of cleaning services per
month or per year.’
Fotobijschrift
KADERKOP
??
Ruben Valdez: ‘There’s never a good time to invest or expand, is there?’
Petrelli can reduce energy costs by, on average, 40%.
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