Turkish Plastics Recycler Produces with Austrian Technology
Turkish firm Tanrıkulu had ordered the recycling line from Austrian engineering firm Starlinger. The new post-consumer HDPE and PP recycling line is installed at the company’s recycling facility in Başiskele (Kocaeli Province, Turkey).
Featuring Starlinger’s special high-vacuum degassing unit, the recoSTAR dynamic 215 C-VAC has a production capacity of two tons of high-quality plastic pellets per hour and processes post-consumer HDPE and PP bottle flakes. According to the provider, the recoSTAR dynamic recycling lines have been designed with a focus on processing contaminated and highly humid post-consumer plastic waste. “The elaborate construction of the SMART feeder allows the recycling of materials with higher levels of humidity,” Paul Niedl, Commercial Head of Starlinger recycling technology, was cited. Combined with the company’s dynamic automation package, which regulates the ideal operating point, it would achieve a significant output increase. “The specially developed C-VAC degassing unit with its modern cascade setup takes care of volatile contaminants after the main extruder, effectively removing them by expanding the melt surface by 300 percent.”
Tanrıkulu processes washed PP and PE flakes. The produced regranulate is used for a variety of products (Photo: Starlinger)
Tanrıkulu supplies the produced regranulate to the Turkish plastic product manufacturing industry. While recycled polypropylene is used mainly to produce automobile plastic parts, furniture, toys and other injection molding products, as well as for pallets, buckets or packaging films, recycled polyethylene is used for pipes, bottles, plastic bags, and similar products.
The company currently operates ten plastics recycling and manufacturing plants in various parts of Kocaeli Province, which borders the Istanbul metropolitan area. Tanrıkulu originally started out in 1989 in Istanbul, recycling paper, glass and metal waste. In 2006, it began to produce regranulate from plastic waste and diversified by adding a facility to produce PET sheets in 2014. Since then, Tanrıkulu has become one of the leading plastics recycling enterprises in Turkey and exports 50 percent of its PET sheet products to overseas markets. Its plastics recycling capacity doubled after opening the İzpack PET packaging production facility in 2018 and installing automatic plastic sorting systems in 2019.
tanrikulu.com.tr/en/, starlinger.com/en
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2023, Page 56, Photo: Tanrıkulu)
