PET bottle regeneration plant
Last modified by the author on 03/05/2017 - 15:01
- Year of commitment : 2014
- Address 1 - street : CARRETERA LIBRE TOLUCA-ATLACOMULCO KM 1.5 PARQUE INDUSTRIAL SAN CAYETANO TOLUCA, Mexico
- CO2 Impact : Based on a production of 50 000t recycled PET : reduction of GHG emission = -82500 t CO2e/an
- Circular economy and waste management : Industrial Ecology, Optimization of ressources, Optical separation, Chemical recycling
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500 000 €
Context
Plastic is everywhere in Mexico. The country is the third largest consumer of PET. However, waste treatment processes are not well adapted and plastic is released into the environment or landfilled. Mexico City has some of the biggest open landfill sites in the world.
Project
One of the world's largest recyclers of food-contact-grade PET opened in 2006 in Toluca, around 60km from Mexico. In 2014, 75 000 tons of PET were collected resulting in a production of 50 000 tons of recycled plastic.
Optical sorting equipment was provided by Pellenc ST and installed in 2010. And thanks to the satisfactory return on investment, PETStar has decided to double its sorting line with the latest generation of Pellenc machines.
Greenhouse gas challenges
The plant was built so as to treat plastic waste generated by Mexico and to avoid landfilling. But it also reduces the carbon footprint of bottles made with recycled plastic. We only need 7MJ/kg to produce recycled PET against 84MJ/kg for virgin PET.
Case study
A. 50 000 tons/year virgin PET production
System boundaries :
- Emissions from the oil extraction to the pellets production
Datas used for calculations :
- One ton of virgin PET production : 2,15 t CO2e/produced ton (source : Plastics Europe)
+107 500t CO2e/year
B. 50 000 tons/year recycled PET production
System boundaries :
- Waste collection and transport to the facility
- Internal transport by freight elevator
- Facilities, equipment and vehicles amortizations
Datas used for calculations :
- Actual consumption data
- Basic factors of "Base Carbone"
+25 000 CO2e/year
GHG emissions reduction : 25 000 - 107 500 = 82 500t CO2e/year
Progress Status
Delivered
Data Reliability
Self-declared
Funding Type
Private
Website Enterprise / Infrastructure
http://www.petstar.mx/empresahttp://www.construction21.org/france/data/exports/pdf/.pdf
Sustainable Development
Testimony / Feedback
Governance
Petstar
Private Company
Other
Private
Modèle économique : PET bottles recycling plant
Sustainable Solutions
- Circular economy
- Waste management
Optical sorting machine : Mistral
Pellenc ST optical sorters uses near infrared spectroscopy to separate waste strams by material and/or color
Reasons for participating in the competition(s)
Recycling and Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsRecycling can contribute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2 ways : - By subsituting virgin material with recycled material- By avoiding end-of-life emissions from other forms of waste treatment (incineration and landfilling)
The energy (responsaible of GHG emissions) required for the production of a recycled product is often lower the energy (responsible of GHG emissions) of the same virgin product. As a result, we estimate that GHG emissions from virgin product production are avoided.
The other potentiel source of emission avoidance is the fact that the is not incinerated. The incineration of waste, like plastic, generates CO2 emission