German PET recycler BTB PET-Recycling (Bad Salzuflen) has installed a new preheating unit and another solid-state polycondensation (SSP) reactor at its site in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to supplier Starlinger (Vienna / Austria; www.starlinger.com).

The additional equipment, added in the spring, takes the company’s total number of Starlinger SSP reactors to nine. The company has also recently invested in improved sorting technology because bottles collected through the German container-deposit system are not as well separated as before as both clear and coloured bottles are mixed together, said Andrzej Zajontz, a BTB’s general manager. He added that input material containing other plastics as well as aluminium and tin plates was requiring extra pre-sorting.

Starlinger described BTB as the “perfect example for the sustainability of a regional closed packaging loop” because the recycler supplies regular customers with rPET for drinks bottles, which are then collected after use and returned to PET regranulate to restart the cycle.

BTB said the coronavirus pandemic has not had a major impact on its activities because many of its customers produce food packaging and have been classified as essential businesses, which has enabled the recycler to remain in operation.

Nevertheless, Zajontz noted that the currently low oil price is making things difficult for the company as it is impeding the sale of recycled material. “The topics of sustainability and circular economy have been pushed aside by coronavirus and its effects on economy and the society,” he said, adding that it is very hard for plastics recyclers to find new customers at the moment.