System and method for the production of food-grade recycled polyolefins

A post-consumer plastic waste treatment system for producing polyolefin food grade recyclates, suitable for use in direct contact with food, comprising:

• an input stage to receive post-consumer plastic container bales;
• a division centre for dividing the material provided by the post-consumer plastic container bales into a first group, formed of material used for beverage purposes, and a second group, formed of material used for non-beverage purposes;
• a shredder configured to shred the first group of material to obtain plastic flakes;
• a sorting unit (4) configured for sorting the plastic flakes to derive a first subset, formed of PO flakes and a second subset, formed of PET flakes;
• a polyolefin recycler configured for processing the first subset of flakes to obtain the polyolefin food grade recyclates.

A method for producing polyolefin food grade recyclates, suitable for use in direct contact with food, the method including the following steps:

• collecting post-consumer polyolefin-based food grade plastic formed of material used for beverage purposes
• shredding the post-consumer polyolefin-based food grade plastic to obtain flakes;
• processing the flakes through a polyolefin recycler, to obtain the polyolefin food grade recyclates;
• inspecting the post-consumer polyolefin-based food grade plastic to obtain a physical property parameter thereof;
• separating the post-consumer polyolefin-based food grade plastic, based on the physical property parameter into a plurality of groups;
• attributing a respective physical property parameter to each group of the plurality of groups;
• introducing a predetermined amount of the polyolefin food grade recyclates into a pack, wherein polyolefin food grade recyclates of the predetermined quantity of the polyolefin food grade recyclates placed in the pack are homogeneous with respect to the physical property parameter;
• providing each package with information relating to the physical property parameter of the polyolefin food grade recyclates contained in the package.