Recovering post-consumer PET and HDPE bottles
Reciclar's main focus is the recovery of post-consumer material. About 95% of its operations is dedicated to the recycling of PET and HDPE recovered from waste originating from different parts of the country. Its advanced sorting and recycling processes allow Reciclar S.A. to produce secondary raw materials with virgin-like qualities. This, in turn, 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.
Five years ago, Reciclar levelled up its business by updating its existing line with the next-generation equipment from Tomra to expand its offering. Since then, the plant additionally sort caps, safety rings and labels made of different materials.
Sophisticated sorting technology
By using the latest sorting technology, Reciclar diverts about 2,500 tonnes of recyclables from landfills or nature every month. The benefits are twofold: on the one hand, fewer materials are lost. On the other hand, more materials are available for further processing and recycling. Reciclar profits from 3 Autosort sorting systems from Tomra. These advanced sorting systems carry out accurate and advanced detection and separation of plastic bottles in the pre-sorting stage. Further down the sorting line, 3 Autosort Flake conduct a final purification step and sorts plastic flakes by both color and material. Combining both high-performing sorting systems enables the recycler to reach high purity levels in the individual fractions created.
“Tomra's machinery brings a wealth of advantages: Autosort combines advanced features and technologies in a single machine. With its compact and flexible construction, Autosort allows for smooth integration into existing and new plants. Autosort is equipped with Tomra Recycling Sorting's patented Flying Beam technology that ensures excellent homogeneous light distribution across the entire belt and improved detection. Consequently, throughput and operational efficiency are considerably higher and enable our partner to sort PET bottles with a high level of accuracy.” Added Julio Barrientos, Tomra Recycling Sorting’s Sales Manager in Mexico.
Apart from Autosort, Reciclar relies on Autosort Flake, one of Tomra's flake sorting machines. It 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 bottle-to-bottle recycling applications. 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.
“All our activities entail social, economic and ecological benefits. With the most advanced processes, we convert waste into recycled raw material and produce highly demanded packaging products, 60% of which correspond to straps that are exported to diverse parts of the continent. Looking ahead, we are motivated to further consolidate our business model”, Nicolas Pell Richards, Reciclar S.A. Director.
