Lindner’s washing system makes sure that the LDPE flakes are optimally cleaned and ready for subsequent extrusion.
Economically, Argentina depends on agriculture. Cattle are bred, soya, grain and other crops are grown on an area of 157,000,000 hectares to feed, in theory, 400 million people. Production on this scale generates millions and millions of delicious steaks with corresponding accompaniments, as well as around 70,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year – mainly heavily soiled agricultural films, bags and containers.
Every year, Argentina's agricultural sector produces around 70,000 tonnes of highly contaminated plastic waste such as agricultural film.
Lindner’s Micromat impresses with its continuous output performance and highly durable knives despite shredding heavily contaminated materials.
The Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas (ACA) in Cañada de Gómez, 70 kilometres west of Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city, has taken on the task of recovering this LDPE agricultural film contaminated with soil and organic components. ACA is an agricultural cooperative and also one of the largest farms in the country. The film, which is turned into recyclate, comes from the company's own production facilities and equates to 10% of the plastic waste produced by the agricultural sector in Argentina per year. In a four-stage process, the contaminated, 180-250 µm thick films are recycled using Lindner shredding and washing equipment. The contamination of the material makes primary shredding a major challenge in the recovery process. For this reason, a Lindner Micromat 2000 shreds the plastics to the optimum particle size of around 60 mm as required for the rest of the process. The shredder ensures continuous throughput with knives that have a long service life. Then, in the pre-washing stage, the flakes are freed from coarse foreign matter and cleaned as well as dried with friction washers. The clean flakes are extruded into pellets, which are yet again used for the production of agricultural film – a nicely closed loop.
Adrián Borovich from Lindner's Argentinian sales partner Megaplast (left) and Ivan Litvinov, Plant Manager at ACA (right) are pleased with the premium regranulate, which is once again being used to produce agricultural film.