First PET bottle

The two new systems will be delivered in 2023 and installed at the Mohinani Group companies Polytank Ghana Ltd. based in Accra, Ghana, and Sonnex Packaging Nigeria Ltd. in Lagos. While the extrusion and pelletising equipment is provided by Starlinger, the sorting equipment is supplied by Tomra.

In Ghana, it will be the first bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in the country supplying food-grade rPET that can be used for producing new bottles. Polytank Ghana is going to source the post-consumer PET bottles for recycling through partners and through the company's own collection network. The produced bottle-grade rPET will go to Polytank's preform production and also be available on the market for other packaging producers.

With this pioneer project in Ghana, Mohinani emphasises the importance of the West African region for the group. "Waste management is a huge topic all over Africa. As Mohinani caters to the plastics sector, it is a logical step for us to enter the plastics recycling industry", said a company spokesperson. "We want to close the loop for plastic packaging, and this is perfectly possible with bottle-to-bottle recycling. Especially in Ghana, where until now no closed-loop recycling exists, we are proud to be the first ones to do it. We opted for Starlinger equipment because of their vast experience in PET recycling and their excellent technical service."

The West African market also plays an important role for Starlinger. For decades, the company has been installing its woven plastic packaging machinery in almost all of the Sub-Saharan countries, and many of the African plastics recycling operations that opened in the past years use Starlinger plastics recycling lines. This long-time engagement has led to solid knowledge of the market and the establishment of a well-working technical service network. With Starlinger branch offices in Nigeria and South Africa, customers can rely on fast and efficient trouble shooting and spare part replacement.