CarbonLITE Recycling LLC has signed contracts for the supply of primary process equipment to be installed in its new plastic recycling facility in Abilene, Texas.
The 200,000 sq.ft. plant will annually recycle roughly 100 million pounds of beverage bottles into PET pellets that can be used to make new bottles. It will employ more than 100 personnel. The CarbonLITE group currently operates a similar facility in Riverside, California. This plant also has an annual capacity of roughly 100 million pounds. In keeping with its philosophy of carbon reduction, CarbonLITE intends to power the Abilene plant with 100 percent green energy.
The new plant’s front-end, bale-opening and bottle-sorting will be built by Bulk Handling Systems of Eugene, Oregon using sorting modules from its subsidiary, NRT of Nashville, Tennessee. The label-removal, bottle-washing, grinding and flake-washing modules will be sourced from AMUT S.p.A of Novara, Italy, and food grade purification and pelletizing will use the Prime technology from EREMA North America Inc. Total investment in equipment and infrastructure will exceed $60 million.
CarbonLITE has a strategic alliance with Nestlé Waters North America and its Abilene plant will be supplying Nestlé’s bottling facilities near Dallas.
Installation of the equipment in Abilene will begin in Q4 2014 with first production expected in Q2 2015.
Published in the August 2014 Edition of American Recycler News