Starlinger - Press Monitor 2024

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Getting Strongly Smelling Agricultural Films and Detergent Bottles Back Into the Loop

⋮ 2.8.2024

The Starlinger line took up operation in June 2024 in Ambiente’s new factory in Leiria, north of Lisbon, where the company recycles both industrial and domestic post-consumer plastic waste. A large share of it consists of discarded LDPE agricultural films and HDPE detergent bottles which Ambiente converts into pellets for film extrusion and blow molding applications. “For us it is important that we produce a high-quality recycled product that can be reused in the same application,” said Paulo Pires, Managing Director of Ambiente S.A. “Our goal is to establish a circular economy. This means circularity within the respective application – for example, irrigation pipes become irrigation pipes again, agricultural film becomes agricultural film, food packaging becomes food packaging, and so on. Furthermore, we want to explore new applications for input materials with strong odors and high contamination levels. For this, all contaminants need to be eliminated as thoroughly as possible in the recycling process. That’s why we are investing in the best available technologies – from washing, extrusion and filtration to odor treatment. Our objective is to generate economic and environmental benefits by offering the plastics industry feedstock that is sustainable as well as competitive to make a circular economy become reality.” Odor-improved recycled pellets The recoSTAR dynamic 165 C-VAC recycling line installed at Ambiente features Starlinger’s renowned odor reduction technology and processes detergent bottles made of HDPE and washed post-consumer agricultural LDPE films. “Agricultural films are used for various applications – for example in greenhouses, as crop covering, or for silage. This results in organic residues being present even after washing which create gases in the subsequent recycling process,” explained Paul Niedl, Commercial Head of Starlinger recycling technology. “In case of packaging applications such as detergent bottles the smells of their contents migrate into the packaging material during their shelf life and usage time. Our odor reduction technology is designed to permanently remove such odors so that the produced regranulate is suitable for high-level applications. Instead of downcycling it can be reused in the same application, which creates circularity.”