Page 63 - Plastics News December 2025
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IN THE NEWS
enhanced with an integrated decontamination through a combination of high heat and high
step (as specified by FSSAI or any other regu- vacuum
latory body) to remove absorbed contaminants
through a combination of surface treatment, 3. Paste-In Recycling
high heat, and/or high vacuum in a controlled Virgin PET (vPET) production operation en-
environment so that the output can be used for hanced with the ability of incorporating PET
direct food contact applications. It has multiple flakes in the paste form, via partial glycolysis. It
levels of decontamination: is equipped with an integrated system of remov-
ing absorbed contaminants via chemical distilla-
Pre-drying/Plasticising/Filtration/Pelletising/
Crystallising/Cooling/Bagging. The decontami- tion, vacuum degassing etc.
nation process happens in extruder and in SSP. 4. Chemical recycling or Advanced Recycling
The SSP process is conducted in an inert gas at-
mosphere. The demand for rPET resin in long run can’t be
met solely by mechanical recycling. There is a
There are increasing demands on the Quality of growing interest in non-mechanical PET recy-
rPET recyclate. The brand-owners demand on cling globally & also in India. It includes Chemical
AA/Benzene/BPA contents and there are guide- recycling. A chemical reaction operation of fully
lines on material, source and collection system. depolymerizing the PET flakes into purified eth-
Capacity of recycling lines vary from 2 to 8 TPH ylene glycol and terephthalic acid (or dimethyl
and the delta IV achieved in SSP is in range of terephthalate) or bis (2 hydroxy ethyl terephtha-
0.16-0.22 dl/g. There are 10 plus manufacturers late). As per ISO 15270 guidelines, the purified
of ‘B-to-B’ PET resin on a pan-India basis using depolymerized monomer can be deployed to
this technology and many more new lines are produce polymer of virgin quality. The manufac-
getting commissioned in ’25 for the rPET res- turer of FCM-rPET using chemical recycling pro-
in suitable for direct food-contact packaging. cess will submit application and relevant dossier
There is a limited availability of food grade rPET to the Food Authority (as per Form 1 of FSSAI
resin and there is a premium for the B-to-B PET in their Guidelines for acceptance of Recycled
resin vs. the virgin PET resin made by the fossil PET as Food-contact material FCM-rPET). These
route. The total installed capacity of B-to-B PET technologies have been already established by
resin will be 11 Lac MT plus by 2030 with an es- select Indian manufacturers to make B-to-B res-
timated investment of Rs 7.5 K CR plus in these ins and also textile grade chips.
recycling systems to make B-to-B PET resins in
India. The chemical recycling is already being done in
a small way in India. The Chemical recycling pro-
2. Melt-In Recycling cesses will help to power both the PET bottle
& Textile recycling and circularity. Materials such
Virgin PET (vPET) production operation en-
hanced with the ability of incorporating PET as colored, opaque, multilayer PET plastics, and
flakes in the molten form. It is decontaminated polyester-based textiles often fall outside scope
of conventional recycling and more often than
December 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 63
