Machinex, PureCycle work together on plastics preprocessing facility

Equipment manufacturer Machinex, Plessisville, Quebec, has announced a recent collaboration with Orlando-based advanced recycler PureCycle Technologies Inc. to develop a 100 percent automated sorting system at PureCycle’s plastic recycling facility in Denver, Pennsylvania.

PureCycle, which specializes in recycling polypropylene (PP), transforms the material into what it calls “ultra-pure” recycled resin, enabling it to be used multiple times as a renewable resource. Machinex says the Pennsylvania facility has the capacity to process 10 metric tons per hour while relying on zero manual sorters.

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According to the equipment manufacturer, PureCycle sought an advanced system to efficiently remove contaminants and sort PP from bales, as well as other high-value materials such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) purchased from material recovery facilities (MRFs) or postindustrial PP plants. With a preference of at least 90 percent purity for their PP bales, PureCycle says it has found that purchased bales typically fall below that threshold, and partnered with Machinex because of the company’s expertise in plastic sorting using its Mach Hyspec optical sorters and SamurAI sorting robots—both products that reduce the need for manual labor.

“It was great to work with Machinex on the development of our first regional preprocessing facility (PreP),” PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson says. “The Machinex technology and their team helped to quickly turn it into a professional, efficient PreP operation. Most importantly, it has allowed us to feed our flagship purification facility in [Ironton,] Ohio with a purer feedstock stream.”

Machinex says the equipment being utilized for the PreP facility includes four Mach Hyspec optical sorters, two II-Ram balers, two SamurAI sorting robots, an eddy current, a magnet and a Mach trommel. Additionally, the Mach Intell business intelligence platforms installed on the SamurAI robots are being used to provide essential data gathering and reporting, optimizing the performance of equipment. Once HDPE and PET are sorted out of its material stream, PureCycle can sell those commodities to be used by other recyclers.

“Partnering with PureCycle represents a strategic advancement for Machinex in our efforts to advance the plastics recycling landscape,” Machinex Technologies CEO Chris Hawn says. “This collaboration showcases the performance of our sorting technologies in a high-demanding application, specifically in multigrade plastics recycling. We appreciate the trust PureCycle placed in us to complete this project, and are proud to witness them achieve their results as expected.”

Machinex says this collaboration underscores its commitment to providing cutting-edge sorting solutions and also supports PureCycle’s mission to create a sustainable circular economy for plastics.