Ecoinvest Ltd., based in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, processes around 40,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year, converting it into high-quality regranulates and flakes. The family-owned company, founded in 2003, employs around 250 people and is one of the leading recycling enterprises in Southeast Europe. In the polyethylene film segment, Ecoinvest operates an Intarema TVEplus line, which enables efficient processing of even heavily contaminated LDPE and LLDPE film waste while maintaining high process stability.
Customer orientation is one of Ecoinvest's priorities. The company supplies customers throughout Southeast Europe, as well as in other European countries and occasionally in the Middle East and Asia, with regranulates and coloured flakes made from LDPE/LLDPE, HDPE and PP. Individual solutions are adapted to customer requirements and intended end-use applications.
Flexible processing of diverse film waste streams
The current economic situation requires a high level of flexibility from recycling companies, as emphasised by Orlin Tasev, CEO of Ecoinvest. He points out that especially in the field of film waste, the company procures input materials with very different quality and purity levels. The input stream includes edge trims from production and very clean post-industrial waste, as well as heavily contaminated post-consumer waste from municipal collection systems.
In addition, Ecoinvest uses post-industrial LLDPE from the agricultural sector. This material can be used as an additive to enhance material properties or as a feedstock for products manufactured from 100 percent LLDPE. The diversity of sources and contamination levels requires a technology that allows the plant to maintain a stable process with a variable input stream.
To meet these requirements, Ecoinvest relies on solutions from established suppliers of processing lines. Orlin Tasev notes that Erema is regarded as one of the leading manufacturers in the industry, which has demonstrated the quality and reliability of its systems for many years. In Ecoinvest's assessment, the Intarema TVEplus recycling line covers a very broad range of materials at high efficiency, which led to identifying it as the appropriate solution for the plant and the targeted quality parameters.
Key figures and functionality of the Intarema TVEplus line
Since mid-2023, Ecoinvest has been operating a new Intarema 1714 TVEplus line that processes more than 12,000 tonnes of LDPE/LLDPE annually. According to Orlin Tasev, in combination with the company's 20 years of experience and the use of modern optical sorting systems, the Erema system enables the plant to process demanding material streams without reducing product quality or line throughput.
The specific functionality of the Intarema TVEplus allows the processing of challenging input materials, such as heavily printed films or materials with increased moisture content, into regranulates with high performance properties. This is important when recycling waste from different collection systems, where the contamination level and degree of material degradation can vary significantly.
Interaction of preconditioning unit and melt filtration
A key element of the system is the interaction between the preconditioning unit (PCU) and TVEplus technology. Thanks to the Counter Current technology, it is possible to process a wide range of materials over an extended temperature range, while gentle melt preparation is ensured. Contaminants are removed by the Erema Laserfilter, which in practice translates into a stable quality level of the final regranulate.
For Ecoinvest, process stability in the extruder is a crucial parameter. According to Orlin Tasev, the Intarema TVEplus line enables the consistent production of A-grade regranulates at high throughputs, regardless of the variability of the input material. This approach facilitates maintaining homogeneous production batches for customers in various market segments.
Regranulates for packaging and technical applications
The regranulates produced at Ecoinvest are available in natural, amber, coloured and black grades, which allows their use in a wide range of applications. These include, among others, industrial and agricultural packaging, construction films, waterproof membranes and various consumer products such as shopping bags and garbage bags.
One of the key parameters of the LDPE regranulates produced by Ecoinvest is a stable melt flow index (MFI), which is important for extrusion processes. Maintaining a consistent MFI is relevant for film producers who require predictable material behaviour on the production line and minimised variation in thickness and mechanical properties in finished products.
Ecoinvest indicates that the combination of input material selection, optical sorting technology and the configuration of the Intarema TVEplus line results in the ability to produce regranulates for diverse applications while maintaining the required processing properties.
Focus on recycling and circular plastics economy
The company sees its future activities as part of a developing sustainable plastics industry in the region. In addition to optimising existing processes, Ecoinvest declares its intention to increase recycling rates and actively support plastics circularity in the markets where it operates.
In practice, this means both seeking additional sources of secondary raw materials and investing in technologies that enable the processing of more demanding plastic waste streams. The high process stability achieved with the Intarema TVEplus line at varying input cleanliness levels remains one of the key elements of this strategy.
