PET Bottle Recycling Process Flow

This process outline the steps involved in transforming baled PET bottles into high-quality recycled PET flakes.

De-Baling and Feeding In

The process begins with the raw material: PET bottles, typically received in bales.

Compressed air passes through air nodules to eject the sorted mateials into designated streams and bunkers.

The bales are broken apart (de-baled) to ensure that each bottle can be individually detected by the machinery. The bottles are then fed onto an in-feed conveyor at a controlled, even speed for subsequent.

Primary Separation and Pre-Cleaning

This stage focuses on removing large contaminants and initial separation steps.

The material stream passes through an over-belt magnet to extract any trapped ferrous (iron-containing) metals.

Bottles enter a bale trommel (a rotating drum screen) which collects materials of a defined bottle size, rejecting items that are either too small or too large for the main processing line.

The bottles proceed to label scrapper which mechanically scratches the surface to remove paper and plastic labels

Advanced Sorting and Quality Assurance

This section details the automated and manual sorting to isolate clear or coloured PET bottles.

Five advanced optical sorters analyse the bottles based on their light reflection wavelengths. These sorters differentiate materials by type (e.g., PET vs. HDPE) and colour (e.g., Clear vs. Coloured). Computer controls precise air blasts to divert the sorted materials into designated streams and bunkers.

The sorted bottles are then directed to manual sorting stations. Operators visually inspect and hand-pick any remaining impurities to enhance the purity of the output stream.

A metal detector is integrated into the conveyor system. If metal is detected, the belt automatically stops, allowing operators to safely remove the contaminant before the process resumes.

Flanking and
Washing
(Processing)

The sorted PET bottles are now processed into clean flakes suitable for reuse.

Clear PET bottles are fed into a cutting mill for wet-shredding. This step combines mechanical cutting with washing, effectively removing dirt and residual liquids from teh buttles while grinding them into flakes.

The flakes undergo a dual hot washing stage. Hot water is used, along with industrial detergent, defoamer, and caustic soda (to ensure a thorough cleaning process aimed at achieving food-grade readiness standards).

A post wash stage uses clean fresh water to rinse away any remaining caustic detergent. Finally, the flakes are rinsed and air-dried.

Final Quality and Packaging

The final stage ensures the recycled flakes meet strict purity specifications

The dried PET flakes are passed through a vibrating screen/tank to ensure they are of the correct size

A final optical sorter station inspects the flakes to confirm their purity, ensuring only the desired PET material remains, free from contaminants like label flakes or cap/ring fragments.

The separated PET flakes, label flakes (separated by air), and cap & ring flakes (separated by water) generated during production are collected and transported via an air-blowing pipeline into dedicated big bags.

Every barch is rigorously monitored and inspected by the in-house quality control laboratory to guarantee that the highest possible industry standards are consistently met.