Plastics News - Show Daily - October 19, 2022 - 28

28 * Plastics News, October 19, 2022
SHOW DAILY
Intco Malaysia Marketing Manager Nina Wang at the company's booth
at the September 2022 Drinktec beverage industry fair.
Plastics News photo by David Vink
K fair importance
recognized by recyclers
By David Vink
Plastics News Correspondent
During an interview with
Plastics News at the September
Drinktec 2022 beverage fair,
Marketing Manager Nina Wang at
Selangor, Malaysia-based plastic
recyclate producer Intco Malaysia
Sdn. Bhd. said 2022 marks
the fi rst time the company will
exhibit at a K fair.
She added that although Intco
is also exhibiting at Pack Expo in
Chicago, which overlaps with K
2022, the company's owner " Jack "
and CEO " Jenny " decided to be at
K. It is a busy time for Intco, with
the decision to exhibit at Drinktec
having been decided just two
months before the fair opened.
Another Intco group company,
Jiangsu, China-based Zhenjiang
Intco Environment Co. Ltd.
(Hall 9, Booth D22) is marking its
third K fair, Wang said. The reason
why these two companies
have different booths refl ects
their different business models.
While the Zhenjiang Intco produces
Greenmax compacting,
shredding and grinding machinery,
the Malaysian operation
produces 100,000 tonnes per
year of recycled polystyrene -
PS and EPS foam - and 50,000
tonnes per year of PET in fl ake
and pellets, as grades for bottle,
fi ber and rigid packaging.
" We expand every year. We recently
bought a further factory
in Malaysia, and that will help us
to meet our plan to double the
volume of recyclate we produce
within the next fi ve years, " Wang
told PN. This means 300,000
tonnes per year of PS and 1 million
tonnes per year of PET, Intco
has indicated, along with the
intention to also start polyethylene
and polypropylene recycling
in future.
Intco started PS recycling 20
years ago and only started PET
recycling four years ago, Wang
said. The PS recyclate is typically
used to produce profi les,
used in products like mirror and
picture frames, produced by Intco
Shanghai, Intco Shandong
and Intco Lu'an in China and the
new Intco Vietnam subsidiary
founded in 2022. The frames and
various indoor and outdoor decorative
products are sold via 200
retail stores in 120 countries.
The company collects bottle
waste in Asia and some other regions
to produce recyclate that
can be processed back into new
recycled PET food-contact-grade
packaging trays and bottles. The
process starts with two manual
sorting stages and photoelectric
color sorting prior to washing,
Wang said.
Wang admitted recycled PET
pellets and fl akes are slightly
more expensive than virgin material,
due to " a very long chain
from collection, through separation
and washing. " But that
doesn't deter Intco, as it knows
the plastic packaging taxes proposed
by the European Union
will help shift the market toward
recycled pellet use.
But equally, she stressed, " the
OEMs, meaning mainly the large
well-known international consumer
goods brand owners, need
to take on the responsibility by
not taking oil out of the ground. "
" We are not talking about taking
business away from others,
but we need and must have this
type of project for the earth, "
Wang observed.
Another Asian PET recycler
at Drinktec was Senai, Malaysia-based
Hiroyuki Industries
(M) Sdn. Bhd. (Hall 7, Level 1,
Booth E30), which will expand
its present 40,000 tonnes per
year production capacity by
an additional 20,000 tonnes to
60,000 tonnes by 2023. This
involves IV+ technology from
Vienna-based Starlinger & Co.
GmbH (Hall 9, Booth D07). This
is a process that starts with hot
caustic washing, drying and
crystallization of PET fl akes obtained
mainly originating from
post-consumer PET containers,
with no more than 5 percent PET
from nonfood consumer applications,
Hiroyuki said.
The crystallized PET is then
extruded and granulated into
pellets, which are then further
crystallized and pre-heated for
treatment in a solid-state polycondensation
reactor. This restores
the intrinsic viscosity to the level
of virgin PET, an essential need
in order to have suffi cient melt
strength in PET blow molding.
At its Drinktec booth, Starlinger
displayed examples of PET fl akes
and pellets, as well as recycled
high density PE fl akes and pellets.
http://www.fimic.it http://www.unitechem.eu
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 19, 2022

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