Colombia produces about 4,000 million PET containers in a year - most of which ends up in landfills and water bodies. However, about 25% of this PET waste is recycled by Enka at its recycling facility in the outskirts of Medellin. It recycles 1,000 million containers per year produced in Colombia.
The PET containers are recycled into new plastic containers, textile fibers as well as tarpaulins that are used for 6 "nylon tires.
Most of the recycled PET plastics packaging material from Colombia are used by the bottling companies in the country. Meanwhile the industrial nylon 6 threads are exported, mainly to the American continent.
The fibers and textile filaments are exported to USA, Brazil, Argentina and others, where the recycled materials are used to manufacture sportswear, underwear and outerwear, etc.
The recycled resins have the same properties as virgin resins. Until recently, Enka did not recycle labels and bottle caps, however, with new machines it is now recycling 100 per cent of the packaging materials.
Learn more about PET recycling industry in South Central America and Caribbean at CMT's 7th SCAPET on 04-05 June, 2019 in Santiago, Chile.
For more information about 7th SCAPET, contact Tanya at
tanya@cmtsp.com.sg or call at +52 55 7157 3697.
