Recycling of polyethylene bottles. Everything about recycling plastic bottles

Due to its versatility, low cost and durability, plastic has found its application in all spheres of life. Today, plastic is the most common artificial material on the planet. He's also first on the trash list. The amount of plastic waste on the planet is reaching epidemic proportions. Many scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs began to pay attention to this problem.

Industrial machines for recycling plastic are usually very expensive and quite complex in design. And let's face it, industrial scale Recycling plastic doesn't pay. Because production cycle — « raw material - plastic product"much shorter and cheaper than - " garbage - sorting - plastic product - recycling - cleaning - raw materials - plastic product" That is why not all cities in the world have factories for processing plastic waste. And their mass appearance is not expected in the near future.

It turns out that the niche recycling plastic at home open. And it is waiting for those who monetize it from any side. A to the common man you don't need much. After all, the beauty of this niche is that waste plastic, essentially garbage, lies under everyone’s feet and is of no use to anyone. That is, excellent and durable material - for free! All that remains is to pick it up, process it in one form or another, and reuse it. And if you don’t like the result, rework it again!

Project " Precious Plastic» helps all consumers give up plastic waste new life. He invites everyone to recycle plastic on their own using household machines, the drawings of which are freely distributed on the Internet.

This project, developed by a Dutch designer Dave Hakkens, shows what can be done to help stop the "plastic plague" in the environment.

Dave, concerned about the problem of plastic waste, found on the Internet drawings of several devices that allow him to somehow recycle plastic at home. Having collected the first samples, improved them, and developed a modular concept for future devices, Hakkens created international project « Precious Plastic" In which he invites everyone to assemble and use four simple but effective plastic recycling machines.

The use of devices allows you to extend the service life of various plastic household items by simply recycling them into others. Unnecessary to necessary. Dishes, artificial rattan, various elements interior design - here is a small list of items that can be made from household plastic waste using these machines.

Four devices, depending on the type and quality of plastic, allow it to be processed in different ways:

Shredder or shredder - a device for grinding plastic waste into crumbs for subsequent processing - heating;
Extruder or extruder - a device that extrudes a heated plastic mass in the form of a rope or tape. That is, the result is artificial rattan or consumables for a 3D printer.
Injector or an injector - heats the polymer crumbs to a plastic mass and injects them into the desired shape;
Press- plastic crumb under pressure and high temperature pressed into various new items.

The most amazing thing about the project “ Precious Plastic"what are they unique cars are distributed free of charge. More precisely, the drawings of the device and instructions for assembling them are available to everyone (video instructions will be below). All that remains is to assemble the cars and start making money on them.

How to make money by recycling plastic at home? Recycling plastics and polymers at home!

Firstly. By recycling unnecessary plastic into useful plastic products and selling them as unique handmade items. This is the simplest and most affordable solution.

Secondly. Entire creative laboratories and coworking spaces are opening based on Hakkens machines. Where anyone can come with their plastic waste, pay money, and work on the devices.

Third. Assistance in assembling and selling devices. Not everyone can master device drawings. And, moreover, collect them. But they are ready to buy assembled similar machines. Why not take advantage of this? Moreover, ready-made devices are quite expensive. Assembly, if you have everything you need, will take no more than a month for any handy guy in the garage.

Fourth. You definitely have your own ideas!

Video No. 1: how to assemble a shredder for shredding plastic

Video No. 2: how to assemble an extruder for plastic processing

Video No. 3: how to assemble an injector for plastic recycling

Video No. 4: how to assemble a press for plastic recycling

So, after studying the video, you can start assembling the devices. For more convenient work, we suggest you study the drawings on the official website of the project. In English.

If the devices are too complicated, you can look at a simple home recycling method plastic bottles.

Bonus: the simplest device for cutting plastic bottles

Appeared on Kickstarter new project « Plastic Bottle Cutter”, which gives consumers the opportunity to reuse plastic bottles.

The simplest device (and you will see this when you see the photo below) allows you to turn an ordinary plastic bottle into a plastic thread of various thicknesses, which you can use at your discretion.

From this thread you can weave various items - from small baskets to elegant furniture elements.

In general, disposable plastic bottles are a valuable resource due to the fact that they are made from plastic. highest quality. But this advantage is not taken into account by most people and the bottles are simply thrown away. The rate of bottle throwing is increasing every day. Therefore, the challenge of effectively reusing and recycling these materials is imperative and imperative. This will reduce environmental pollution.

Plastic bottles make up a significant portion of household waste.

Plastic accumulations on landfills lead to serious environmental problems.

It is a known fact that PET bottles take more than 200 years to decompose, and deposits of this material can turn the planet into a giant landfill. When they decompose, toxic substances are also released.

Equipment for recycling plastic bottles allows you to reduce the amount of manual labor. Recycling plastic can not only significantly improve the environment, but also generate impressive income. Moreover, you can use recycled PET raw materials an unlimited number of times.

The latest technologies for recycling recyclable materials make it possible to obtain from PET bottles fuel. For example, Envion recycles PET containers to produce synthetic automotive fuel.

However, this technology is much inferior in terms of profitability to the common technology for producing recycled plastic in the form of granules.

The process of producing polyethylene granules takes place in several main stages:

Plastic sorting according to color and type and subsequent cleaning. If there is no need for further processing, then compressed PET bottles are sold as secondary raw materials.
Usage crushing equipment to obtain homogenized plastic crumbs.
Flushing the resulting plastic mass to remove dirt, glue and labels.
Drying, allowing to minimize the remaining moisture.
Agglomeration through heat treatment.
Granulation to small granules.

Failure to completely remove contaminants, labels, adhesives and other components will increase wear and tear on the equipment, and foreign objects may even destroy the crusher. Even a slight residue of glue on the raw material can adversely affect the color and quality of the resulting polymer.

Brief overview of the equipment

All modern lines that allow processing PET bottles into recyclable materials contain:

vibrating sieve, to remove solid impurities;
conveyor for sorting plastic;
crusher for crushing bottles;
centrifuge for drying with label separator;
cork separator, based on the fact that the density of plastic crumbs allows them to sink to the bottom and be transmitted further by the line. In this case, the floating cork crumbs are transported to another container, where they are removed.
secondary washing followed by drying to obtain plastic chips suitable for subsequent processing.

Minimum production

Equipment set for small and medium production:

conveyor or sorting table
special

This set of equipment is completed small collection points where the bottles are subject to sorting and baling.

Labels, as well as plugs and PVC rings can be removed manually beforehand.

Bottles pressed into a bale take up ten times less space.

Eg, press from the mini series has a price of 70–75 thousand rubles.

This type of press is ideal for a small collection point.

It allows you not to accumulate the resulting raw materials, but to immediately press them into bales.

In such a compact form, transportation and storage are much more profitable and convenient.

Additional equipment

Equipment for recycling can also be expanded by:

crushing machine, combining several functions
special washing container
drying
extruder instead of a conventional granulator

When collecting raw materials yourself, the bottles are sorted and then the labels and corks are removed. The next step is to crush the bottles until you get homogeneous plastic chips.

The crushed mass is obtained through the process of washing and removing dirt and adhesive residues. The next step is drying and granulation.

Using an extruder, you can produce plastic thread or another product of a given shape instead of granules.

The average price of a crusher, for example, a model such as AMD-200D, starts from 98 thousand rubles.

Popular lines

The most affordable machines recycling bottles made of plastic, belong to baling type. The most popular of them are:

press PRESSMAX 530, a universal machine based on imported components:
1. hydraulic pump brand Marzocchi and Vivoil,
2. MPspaFILTRI filter elements,
3. Badestnost distributors.
average price equipment costs 220 thousand rubles.
crusher "AMD-600D", with a productivity of up to 120 kg/hour. It is characterized by its small size and low power consumption. Very easy and intuitive controls price from 120 thousand rubles.
centrifuge for drying polymer materials “S-TSR-30” with a maximum productivity of 400 kg/hour. Operating power is 20 kW/hour. Removes with water all residual fine particles: dirt, dust, sand and PVC. average cost is about 140 thousand rubles.
Extruder. The full cycle also implies the presence of an extruder - a machine that allows you to mold plastic materials. The cost of such a polymer and plastic granulator depends on the desired performance. The efficiency of such equipment is best calculated when the volumes of available raw materials are precisely known. Average price from 64 thousand rubles.

Price and equipment

The minimum cost of processing equipment is about 4 million rubles. For example, the cost of a mobile mini-plant for processing PET bottles PET mobile-250 is approximately 160 thousand euros.

About 400 thousand will be required to install equipment. Cost of required elements of the production workshop:

agglomerator ≈ 250 thousand
granulation line ≈ 1.5–2.5 million
rotary chopper ≈ 2 million

Components of the finished line:

container for soaking flex
dynamic centrifuge for cleaning plastic
hot bath
dispenser
friction screw
rinsing bath

Domestic equipment is much cheaper (≈ 1.5 million rubles). However, it is often subject to more frequent breakdowns and is less productive.

The leaders among equipment manufacturers are:

Redoma,
Herbold,
Sorema,
Shredder,
RIKO RT.

Costs and profitability

Payback such a business is a key point in production planning.

To buy a fully equipped line, you will need about 4 million rubles. Average productivity will be from 0.8 to 1 ton per hour. Total energy consumption is 73 kW per hour.

No more than six people will be required to service the production. At the same time, they will be busy mainly with loading and unloading operations. The efficiency of each worker is about 120 kg/h. Wage about 15–20 thousand rubles per month.

For full production you will additionally need:

manager,
accountant.

The cost of a ton of raw materials (this is approximately 25,000 plastic bottles) is from 3 to 6 thousand rubles. With an 8-hour working day, the gross income will be approximately 350 thousand rubles per month. Including all payments payback of such equipment will be from 18 to 36 months.

conclusions

Now is the most favorable moment to purchase equipment and create a processing enterprise plastic containers. A little more time and the barrier to entry into this market will become much higher, as will the competition.

The Internet is replete with advertisements for buying and selling food-grade plastic. A huge volume of plastic bottles are simply thrown into the trash. Next, valuable raw materials end up in city landfills and rot there for years instead of being recycled.

You can start by organizing a collection point for PET containers, which will save you from transportation costs. You can also enter into an agreement with enterprises that produce significant volumes of PET waste. A stable source of raw materials is essential.

Opening an enterprise for processing plastic bottles into secondary raw materials will require proper selection of equipment. Cheap ones can quickly fail, but expensive ones will have a significant payback period.

The advantage is that you can start with a minimum set of equipment. As income grows, some operations can be automated through the purchase of specialized machines.

PET recycling equipment in action can be seen in a short video:

In contact with

"Plarus" is the first Russian plant that operates using bottle-to-bottle technology. Recycled plastic is no different in quality from what comes to the enterprise. The finished raw materials are used to produce new plastic bottles.

Plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate or PET. Statistically, it is the most recycled plastic in the world. The bottle recycling process includes three stages, for which three workshops are responsible at the plant.

Collection of raw materials

Raw materials are purchased from landfills, waste sorting plants and private collections. Purchase price: 25 rubles per kilogram. In one hour, the plant processes 1,200 kilograms of plastic bottles.

Recycling is a seasonal process. From May to September the number of used PET bottles increases due to natural reasons.

Sorting

The most labor-intensive process is sorting plastic by color. Plastic bottles fall into a drum, where dirt is beaten off and ferrous metals are separated. The computer then determines the color of the bottle and sends it to the appropriate bin.

There are only four colors: natural, blue, brown and green. After processing, you will get plastic of these colors. This is why recycled plastic is in great demand among packaging manufacturers: the raw materials are already colored and there is no need to spend money on expensive dye.

The dirtier the container, the more difficult it is to determine its color, so one bottle can go through the sorting stage several times. The plastic is then pressed into cubes weighing 200 kilograms each and sent to the second workshop.

Washing

In the second workshop, the cube is broken, the bottle again passes through the metal detector and ends up in a washer with cold water, where dirt and sand are washed off.

In a washer with hot water the label comes off. Already clean bottles fall onto the conveyor belt and are checked manually.

The flakes accumulate in the intermediate silo before the next wash. The process is reminiscent of laundry: the flakes are washed with lye and detergent, rinsed twice, and squeezed. Bottle caps float up and end up in another container, since they are a separate type of plastic that, after recycling, are purchased by household goods manufacturers.

The flakes undergo final sorting: the computer selects rejected flakes of a different color.

Granulation

In the third workshop, the flakes are cut in a grinder. Dust is completely sifted out mechanically, so workers do without respirators. Flex melts at a temperature of 280 degrees, harmful substances and large elements are drawn out of the molten material. Then a special machine (die) extrudes thin plastic threads (strands).

They are cooled and cut - transparent granules are obtained.

The granulate ends up in a 50-meter tower, where under the influence of nitrogen and high temperature the plastic becomes cloudy and gains mass and viscosity.

The product spends 16 hours in the tower, is cooled and packaged.

The finished product is packaged in bags, then the granules are sent to customers.

Recycled plastic is suitable for packaging, building materials and non-woven fabric. For example, to make one polyester T-shirt you will need 20 plastic bottles.

Most of the drinks that people buy are sold in plastic bottles. Each city resident accounts for approximately 100 kilograms of discarded PET bottles per year.. If we take into account that they decompose within 300 years, then one can imagine what irreparable damage could be caused to the ecology of the planet if all these bottles were disposed of in landfills. It is much more profitable for the economy and safer for nature to recycle and use as recyclable materials.

It is the PET bottle that is the main raw material in the production of flex (recyclable materials for the production of chemical fiber). Chemical fiber is used to produce the same plastic bottles, as well as bristles (for brushes), packaging tape, film and a number of other products.

The result is a cyclical process of endless recycling of plastic bottles, which saves money and protects environment. In Russia this type activities have not yet entered the mass market, and therefore such a business is especially competitive and attractive.

Plastic recycling equipment

After going through a number of processing stages, the last of which is pre-pressing, the bottles end up on a special line that processes containers. When it comes out, you get a flex that looks like flakes. The line consists of several units, connected by conveyor belts. It consists of the following elements:

rotary machine;
crusher;
screw conveyor equipped with an Archimedean screw;
steam boiler;
washing polishing machine;
rinsing apparatus;
dryer-water separator;
air drying;
bunker

The processing technology follows a certain scheme:

collected bottles sorted by color, each color is processed separately;
manually remove various foreign objects - rubber, paper, other types of plastic;
labels and caps are separated in a rotary machine;
in a crusher with several blades, resembling a large blender, the bottles are crushed;
then the mass from plastic bottles is placed on a screw conveyor into a steam boiler, where another purification process takes place;
completely cleaned plastic is sent to a water separator dryer, then to air drying;
after the resulting flex has completely dried, it will be moved to a special bunker;
By agglomeration, the crumbs are sintered into small lumps, which can already be used as raw materials. To average the characteristics of the lumps, granulation is carried out, which increases the density of the resulting material and facilitates its further use.

What comes from recycled materials

Recycled bottles are used to make many different products., such as new bottles, film, bristles, fibers, containers for chemicals, fabric bases for the production of textiles, clothing and carpets, as well as padding polyester, automotive parts, sound-proofing materials, electrical goods.

Prospects for this direction

Today, recycling of plastic bottles is one of the most profitable segments of the recycling market. If we talk about profit for a particular entrepreneur, then investments in this type of activity the right approach will pay off in 14–18 months, and the net monthly profit will be about 8 thousand dollars.

It is worth noting that city authorities often accommodate those who want to engage in similar type activities. So, if you apply for participation in any program to clean up the city, you can quite possibly get free premises suitable for a processing plant. All that remains is to register the enterprise and purchase necessary equipment

(full cycle line). There are no problems with finding raw materials for production: since the cities are littered with plastic bottles, all that remains is to either collect them or open collection points; Another option is to negotiate with the landfill for the delivery of raw materials. The peculiarity of this is that, by ensuring a profit for himself, the entrepreneur is doing something useful for the environment. After all PET bottles are a real problem, especially in big cities when after mass events

or simply in crowded places there are huge bottles left, most of which are plastic bottles. Recycling plastic bottles is a fairly pressing task today, and business in this area can be called very promising. This is due to the distribution and widespread use of such packaging in all industries National economy . That's why it's worth appreciating technological process

processing, the cost of equipment used for this, as well as markets for the resulting raw materials.

Relevance of the problem Statistics show that every year a person throws away about 300 kilograms various garbage , a third of which are plastic bottles. Already used containers are no less valuable than glass bottles

or waste paper. In the process of processing such waste, a material is obtained from which flex is made in the form of plastic flakes. And it, in turn, is suitable for the subsequent manufacture of containers. It turns out that recycling a plastic bottle is, because plastic makes flex, and vice versa. In addition, such an idea is fully justified in environmentally, since complete decomposition of the polymer requires 300 years, no less.

Modern tendencies

Recycling plastic bottles as a business is great idea, since thanks to this you can get quite a good profit, but only if you draw up a business plan correctly, as well as if you have the required amount of money. Organizing such an enterprise is quite expensive. Here the main points relate to finding suitable premises, arranging supplies of raw materials, as well as searching for sales markets. This business is not just profitable, but also quite useful. In addition, recycling of plastic bottles is not yet very developed in the CIS countries, so you will not have much competition.

Main technological stages

You can consider the recycling process that occurs at such an enterprise.

At the first stage, bottles are collected and sorted. There are no difficulties here, and this process will be discussed in more detail later. Only one thing is worth noting: at this stage, an uninterrupted supply of raw materials with its further sorting should be established.

Grinding

The second stage is crushing. Here you will already need certain equipment for processing plastic bottles, namely a special crushing installation. Sorted raw materials are placed in it, which is crushed to produce flakes of 0.8-1.2 cm in size, it all depends on which grid is used in the installation. This is the same flex. Next, this crushed mass is thoroughly washed using caustic soda. The plastic bottle recycling line sends it all into a centrifuge, where pieces of paper labels are separated from the bulk. The flotation process allows you to remove rings and caps, as well as labels made of polypropylene. Flex is washed again, this time used pure water, after which it is placed in a tube dryer, where a stream of hot air ensures drying. At the end, the plastic bottle recycling machine unloads and packages the flex. In this form, the material is already suitable for sale. But you can use a slightly different technology.

Agglomeration and granulation

The third stage is agglomeration. Sometimes this technology for recycling plastic bottles is used. This is a simple procedure. The crushed mass is exposed to high temperatures, as a result of which it sinteres and turns into small lumps. These lumps can be sold as ready-made raw materials, or they can be granulated, due to which they are “improved.”

The fourth stage is granulation. You can already see how versatile plastic bottle recycling can be. The technology in this case involves subsequent processing of raw materials. This significantly improves its quality and purity, which makes it possible to increase the cost of the product. Granulation is often called briquetting; the essence of this process is to turn the crushed mass into pieces of the correct shape, that is, peculiar granules of the same size and weight. This is done this way: the particles are compacted under slight pressure, since there may be voids between them. After this, the particles themselves are deformed, due to which they adhere at the molecular level. The final stage involves increasing pressure to transform the elastic modification into a plastic one. The result of this is the production of durable granules of the same shape.

Even taking into account the fact that equipment for these purposes is quite expensive, it is quite possible to open such a business. The processing line alone costs around 130 thousand dollars. But this is the price to pay for how beneficial recycling plastic bottles is. A business plan for such a plant should be based on specific project to demonstrate it to potential investors.

First of all, you need to register a company. It is worth noting that this type of activity will be recognized as trade in small products, so it can be started even before the opening of an individual entrepreneur. Next, you need to take care of a suitable premises, purchase or rent equipment for processing plastic bottles. But it’s worth considering everything in order. First, you will need to obtain a license for this type of activity, and also coordinate everything with the SES and the fire organization. Obtaining all the documents required for this costs about 200 rubles.

Business premises

When the “paperwork” issues are resolved, you can begin to search for premises where the line for the production of plastic bottles will be located. This requires an area of at least 3000 square meters, it is best if it is located outside the city. An abandoned factory or warehouse is suitable for these purposes; it is important that all communications necessary for work are connected to it. The premises will need to be divided into three parts (this must be taken into account when drawing up a business plan): for raw materials, for finished products, for production.

Business staffing

So, have you decided to open a plastic bottle recycling plant? In this case, you need to have a rough idea of the prices and equipment that will be required for these purposes. The minimum amount you should expect is 4 million rubles plus another 400 thousand for installation. For a production shop there are several elements that are mandatory. Equipment for recycling plastic bottles must include:

Agglomerator (≈ 222 thousand);

Granulation line (≈ 1-2 million);

Rotary chopper (≈1.5 million).

It is important to understand that the specified set is the minimum required to set up a line that will process plastic bottles. The following is a list of components for the finished line:

Bath in which the flex will be soaked;

A dynamic centrifuge designed for harsh cleaning of plastic from remaining dirt, labels, and other debris;

A hot bath of water heated to 60 degrees, with the addition of sodium phosphate, is used for maximum effective cleaning of the flex;

A dispenser that supplies flakes in equal portions into pipes with heated air;

A friction auger, which is designed to accumulate flex and transport it to the soaking bath. It includes an inclined auger, a flushing system and a storage hopper;

Rinse bath, which is designed to wash away any remaining detergent from the flakes.

Purchasing options

Of course, it is quite possible to acquire domestic technology, which will be much cheaper, but in this case there is a high probability frequent breakdowns or that the equipment capacity will not be enough. Although the cost of this equipment will be approximately 1 million rubles. You can also choose the option of purchasing used machines, then you can save about half the amount.

Among manufacturers of equipment for plastic recycling, the leading positions belong to Herbold, Shredder, Sorema, RIKO RT, Redoma and others. Most of the equipment used today is manufactured in China. If we talk about domestic manufacturers, the quality of their products is much inferior even to Chinese ones. One exception is the Machinery and Technologies company.

Raw materials

The easiest production stage in this case is organizing the supply of raw materials. We are talking about plastic bottles, of which you can find a lot in every city. Extraction of raw materials can be done in one of several ways:

You can install special ones around the city garbage containers, intended for sorting. Instead of one old one, you can install several new ones. They need to be labeled accordingly so that people who dispose of waste sort it immediately. At the same time, you can count on the support of the city authorities, as they are always happy to have new garbage cans.

You can send people directly to the solid waste landfill, where they will sort the waste right on the spot. This method is not so expensive, since you do not need to spend money on purchasing additional containers.

Organize collection points for plastic bottles throughout the city. Now the cost of one kilogram is about 20-30 cents. In this case, the costs are not as high as if it were necessary to purchase trash cans or send people to the city landfill. Since your goal is precisely the recycling of plastic bottles, and not collection, you don’t have to organize your own collection points, but use the services of existing ones. You can also negotiate with city waste collection services on regular supplies of raw materials. The cost of one ton is about $100.

A deposit scheme is another option. Its essence is to arrange the return of used packaging back to points of sale of products for a certain fee.

Profitability and payback of business

So, if you are interested in recycling plastic bottles as a business, then when drawing up a plan, you need to determine the profitability of the future enterprise. First you need to decide on personnel: you need 4-5 workers, an accountant, several people for control production process, manager.

It turns out that when organizing such a business, you may encounter the following average statistical expenses:

4 million rubles - purchase of equipment and its installation;

400 thousand rubles - rent of premises and payment of utilities;

200 thousand rubles - other expenses.

Total we're talking about about the amount of 4.6 million rubles, to which it is worth adding the salaries of employees - 270 thousand rubles.

The processing results in a product that would sell for 2.9 million per tonne, depending on the type of plastic. When the enterprise operates 23 days a month for 8 hours and produces 1 ton of products per day, you can count on a net monthly benefit of 300-350 thousand rubles.

conclusions

If you strictly follow the business plan, you can say that the opening costs will pay off in about a year and a half, but this is subject to proper organization of the entire production. Besides the fact that recycling a plastic bottle is profitable occupation, it should also bring moral pleasure from the fact that a person is making a contribution to improving the environmental situation.