First totally closed-loop recycler

 rPlanet Earth, a new company dedicated to closed-loop recycling of post-consumer plastics, has started up a large grassroots facility that is the world’s first completely vertically integrated plant for converting PET packaging waste into finished rPET products with properties comparable to those made from virgin PET.
The 302,000 sq.ft (28,060 sq.m) facility in Vernon, CA takes in bottles, clamshell containers, and other packaging waste from curbside collection; puts it through an extensive series of sorting and cleaning procedures; grinds it into flake and subjects it to rigorous wash and decontamination; raises the intrinsic viscosity (IV) of the material in accordance with end-use requirements; and processes it into food-grade sheet, thermoformed containers, and injection molded preforms for bottles. The new rPlanet Earth plant has an annual capacity of 80,000,000 lb. (36,290 metric tons).
The total investment at Vernon thus far is over US-$ 100,000,000.
After bales entering the rPlanet Earth facility have been broken into a single stream of bottles and thermoforms, the material is subjected to multiple sorting procedures. Magnetized sorters remove foreign matter such as wire; near-infrared scanners identify PET and separate it from other polymers; and another sorting step separates PET materials by color. Next comes a dry system for grinding the material into flake; water is avoided because it is a carrier for inks and adhesives that can negatively affect the quality of the finished rPET. The first encounter with water is in the wash line, where the material is cleaned before it moves to a tank where PET, which is heavier than water, sinks, while labels, adhesives, and other matter are skimmed off. Subsequently the flake enters a Krones MetaPure® reactor where ~200 °C heat and vacuum are used in a final decontamination process; solid state polymerization (SSP) raises the IV of the rPET to various levels, depending on the target application.
rPlanet Earth bypasses the pelletizing step in favor of adding value to flake by using it in its own in-house plastics processing lines. “By skipping the pelletizing of rPET we potentially avoid degrading our products’ appearance, since a melting step that can negatively affect color is completely eliminated,” said Mr. Daviduk. “Our customers are looking for products that come from a truly closed-loop recycling system.” He noted that rPlanet Earth can supply sheet, thermoformed packaging, or preforms whose rPET content can range up to 100%, depending on whether or not a customer requires some percentage of virgin PET.
The company currently operates seven plastics processing lines: Two Husky injection molding systems are for production of preforms; and three Welex extrusion lines produce sheet for sale as rollstock to the merchant market or for use in-house on two large Lyle thermoforming machines. The thermoformed products manufactured by rPlanet Earth may include drinking cups, produce packaging, clamshell containers, and virtually any other food-grade thermoformed packaging currently made from PET.