Mineral water company Ferrarelle (Riardo / Italy; www.ferrarelle.it) has made a step to “close the loop” with its PET bottles. The Italian company has opened a new recycling plant in Presenzano / Italy that uses Amut’s (Novara / Italy; www.amut.it) patented washing technology to produce up to 3 t of flakes per hour, derived from post-consumer PET bottles.

According to Amut, the high-quality rPET flakes can be processed directly to manufacture preforms and bottles. The Italian machinery manufacturer says the plant allows the processing of PET bottle bales that are not properly sorted and may contain a high amount of pollutants.

Pietro Bortone, plant manager at Presenzano, says Ferrarelle is expecting to exceed its annual requirement of around 700m preforms. He adds that the rPET flakes Ferrarelle produces could potentially be sold to third parties.