Doğa PET reaches near-perfect PET purity for food and textile applications

Doğa PET, a new recycling venture by Doğa Holding, will use TOMRA Recycling's sensor-based sorting solutions to produce high-quality PET flakes and rPET granules which are suitable for food and textile applications. 

Located in northwestern Turkey, Doğa PET's plant currently processes more than 4,200 metric tons of PET bottles monthly, producing 1,000 metric tons per month of PET flakes and 2,000 metric tons per month of rPET granules. The facility incorporates TOMRA's full range of machines for plastics sorting: four of the company's sorting all-rounder AUTOSORT, as well as two INNOSORT FLAKE and two AUTOSORT FLAKE units for advanced flake sorting and purification. This combination of units optimizes both product quality and processing capacity. 

Depending on Doğa PET's requirements, the premium PET flakes — produced in various quality grades — are used for PET sheet production, while the rPET granules are mainly aimed at bottle-to-bottle recycling and high-quality textile applications. The company plans to export its recycled products, primarily to European countries.

Achieving exceptional purity levels of PET flakes with TOMRA technology 

While producing clear flakes, Doğa PET aims to minimize the loss of light blue PET material and, when necessary, separates the light blue material from the clear one. The blue bottles, which are ejected when processing clear PET, can be a valuable resource for other applications. 

Doğa PET is the first facility in Turkey to successfully separate light blue material from clear material, regardless of the infeed product. During the sorting process, light blue products are separated from all infeed materials and recovered for reuse as needed.

Advanced waste analysis 

Doğa PET is required to prove that less than 5 percent of the input material for its washing process consists of non-food grade PET to produce food-grade pellets. To meet this requirement and enhance material recovery across its sorting lines, the company has invested in a state-of-the-art waste analyzer powered by PolyPerception, a solution that uses cameras for real-time material analysis and classification at key points in the sorting plant. At Doğa PET's plant, the analyzer is positioned before the last of four AUTOSORT units. It continuously monitors and analyzes the quantity of non-food grade PET bottles destined for the washing line. 

By providing data per batch or shift, the analyzer enables Doğa PET to certify the food-grade quality of material from each specific production period, offering crucial reassurance to both its customers and relevant certification bodies. This transparency is particularly vital for end customers purchasing these pellets from a Turkish PET facility. Exporting its high-quality product to Europe, Doğa PET relies on this assurance to meet its customers' stringent compliance requirements.

The crucial role of quality in filament-grade textiles

While Doğa PET invests in high-quality food-grade rPET granules for bottle-to-bottle recycling, the company also applies the same approach to supplying raw materials for the textile industry. Dr. Gerlikhan comments: "The filament sector in textiles demands very high purity levels and color stability. The durability, aesthetics and functionality of the final fiber product depend heavily on the proper management of the PET recycling process when producing high-quality rPET granules. Accurate sorting is critical for increasing rPET granule purity. For us, using TOMRA's state-of-the-art sorting systems is crucial as they ensure efficient and fast recycling processes."

Dr. Selçuk Gökhan Gerlikhan, general manager of Doğa PET, comments: "We are delighted to have been by Doğa's side from the very beginning on this project, consulting on the feasibility study. Achieving the desired capacity and quality levels in such a short period of time with such vast inputs has been a great achievement which demonstrates how advanced sorting technology contributes to achieving virgin-like material qualities."