South Africa: Extrupet expands into PET bottle-to …

1 23 INTERNATIONAL REPORTFACTBOXE xtrupet (Pty) Sales Contact South AfricaMARITIME MARKETINGP eter CawcuttKyalami / South AFRICAP hone: +27/11/466 Manager South Africaat EREMA Headquarters in AustriaLaszlo Padanyi: In terms of logistics and the machinepool in place, our Wadesville site, with its32,000 m2 of production surface area, isequipped mainly for recycling post-consumer PET bottles," explains Extrupet 'sChief Operating Officer (COO), and supplied in 250 kg balesout of South Africa's recently establishedwaste collecting schemes, the bottles areinitially run through a pre-washing are then sorted fully automaticallyaccording to colour and material type. Thisis accomplished "inline", using NIRspectroscopy, in what is the first suchprocess to have been implemented onthe African continent, according to Before the bottles aresubsequently ground to flakes, they passa metal detector for safety reasons. Theflakes in turn are thoroughly washed andpre-dried to below 1% residual moisturein two dryer stages as a last preparationcycle before being fed to the VACUREMA extrusion system for further processing intofood contact grade INVESTMENT BASED ON TRUST As regards our recycling extrusion system,we possess extensive experience withEREMA's technology by now.

2 For five years,we have been using several standard PCtype EREMA systems designed forprocessing polyester, Mr. Wadhwaniexplains. Although the resulting PETrecyclates are of high quality, they are notsuitable for food-contact use. Most of thisPET RECYCLINGAT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPES outh Africa: Extrupet expands into PET bottle-to -bottle recycling with its first VACUREMA systeminput material has therefore been convertedinto staple fibres, polyester fibres, geotextiles, strapping band and thermoformingfilms, as well as some new PET bottlesalbeit not for food-contact use. The bulk of this output is shipped to Africancustomers, , in domestic South Africaand Nigeria, but some product also goesto Western Europe, South Korea and evenAustralia. Doubtless, we owe not the least part ofour renown to the performance andreliability of our EREMA equipment. As wenow expand into food-grade rPET, wetherefore opted for a VACUREMA system, Chandru Wadhwani justifies his company' UPGRADABILITYThe new VACUREMA BASIC 1512 i s pre-configured to support subsequentupgrading into a VACUREMA ADVANCED system at any time.

3 This will involve theretrofit of an additional vacuum pre-treatment vessel. In its current BASIC configuration, the system enables Extrupetto produce a food-safe recyclate with anintrinsic viscosity (IV) roughly on par withthat of the input material. The upgradedADVANCED version, on the other hand,would provide an intrinsic viscosity gainof around 3% in the future if and whennecessary. On principle, this would evenpermit the production of new PET beveragebottles from 100% its new investment, Extrupet supportsand assists the South African plasticproduction industry - and specifically,manufacturers of PET beverage bottles - inits voluntary commitment to return post-consumer raw materials into the productcycle in an economically and ecologicallyefficient from Wadeville, Extrupet still maintainsits original production facility at Cape Townand employs around 250 people at itstwo sites today. It was the Cape Town sitewhere the company gathered its firstexperience with EREMA technology as farback as in the 1990s.

4 Chandru Wadhwani, Extrupet s COO(left), and Iqbal Hirji, Managing Directorat Extrupet (right)For Extrupet (Pty) Ltd. of South Africa, PET recycling has long ceased to be new territory. At its operating facilitynewly erected in 2004 in Johannesburg's Wadeville district,the company now produces around 24,000 tonnes ofrecyclate each year, mostly from post-consumer PETbeverage bottles although some PE-HD waste is processedhere as well. One recent innovation at Wadesville is thecompany s first EREMA PET recycling system based on aVACUREMA BASIC 1512 T-VS which is rated for a throughputof 550 to 800 kg/h. The equipment enables Extrupet toproduce food-safe rPET to North American FDA standardsand is likely to support production of that material incompliance with the requirements of the newlyestablished European EFSA soon. It is being commissionedat the customer s site as this EREMA News goes to print(spring 2009).