Plastic Waste Turned into Raw Material

A recycling firm in Bursa is converting 5 tons of plastic waste per hour into raw materials using an advanced automation system, returning it to the economy. At the facility in Kestel district, PET and high-density polyethylene waste undergoes pre-sorting, separation and plastic shredding units, followed by flotation, hot and cold washing, rinsing and drying processes. Following these processes, two types of raw materials are obtained: flakes and granules. The raw materials, analyzed in the laboratory, are used in plastic industries in Turkey and various other countries. Operating with an environmentally conscious identity and zero-waste principle, the water used during washing operations is processed through various stages in the facility's wastewater treatment unit and made reusable. Burkasan General Manager Birhan Denktaş stated: "By recovering PET and high-density polyethylene plastics, we produce raw materials that can be used as substitutes for virgin materials in primary industry. PET material has many different applications. The most prominent is the textile sector. PET bottles are used in polyester production. The PET flakes we produce are converted into fibre or yarn in textile mills and used as recycled material in many garments. PET is also widely used in the packaging sector. High-density polyethylene is generally used in packaging for products such as detergents and shampoos after recovery." Denktaş emphasized that producing maximum-quality recycled raw materials is essential to transform them into products for household use, and noted that recycled raw materials can be used alone or with their virgin counterparts in production.

Denktaş stated that they sell raw materials to global operations, ready-made garment, yarn and fibre producers, saying: "High-density polyethylene raw materials are used in their packaging within the scope of a project we are conducting with Unilever. Bottles were produced from 100 percent recycled raw materials and put on sale on market shelves."

Addressing the importance of plastic recycling, Denktaş said: "When we recycle material and convert it into raw material, we no longer have a dependency on petroleum derivatives, and we can do this not once, but dozens of times. When we provide this cycle, we achieve maximum benefit with fewer resources." Facility Manager Beyzat Osmanoğlu, explaining the production process, said that PET and high-density polyethylene bottles arrive at the facility in pressed and baled form. Stating that they separate both PET and high-density polyethylene simultaneously on a single separation line, Osmanoğlu said: "The facility's processing capacity is 2,500 tons per month, raw material capacity is 1,500 tons. Residual waste that cannot be processed at the facility is sent to energy recovery incineration facilities." Osmanoğlu, noting that there is a global recovery movement and many major brands have made it a rule to use recovered raw materials in products or product packaging, continued as follows: "Previously, the purpose of recovery was second-grade raw material production. Nowadays, major companies want recovered raw materials equivalent to virgin materials. We produce at a level equivalent to virgin materials in terms of physical and chemical properties. Raw materials take their place in stock for use in automotive, textile and packaging sectors. Companies make requests both domestically and internationally, and we carry out exports and imports of raw materials." Source