Coperion has received a Letter of No Objection (LNO) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) recycling technology.

The letter confirms that the combination of Coperion twin screw extruders and EcoFresh silo degassing used in the manufacture of rHDPE and rPP fulfills the requirements for direct contact with food.

Coperion is the first provider of complete decontamination systems featuring twin screw extruders and EcoFresh silo degassing to offer the market a highly efficient solution for the production of food-grade recyclates, covering capacities from small throughputs up to 6,000 kg/h.

This opens up new possibilities for the recycling of food packaging – for example, food-grade regranulate can be produced from HDPE milk jugs or fruit juice bottles and then reused to manufacture similar bottles or related products. Food containers, cups, bowls and trays made of PP can be recycled into new packaging for direct contact with food.

Co-rotating twin screw extruder x EcoFresh silo degassing system

High decontamination performance is carried out by Coperion’s co-rotating twin screw extruder's high degassing performance and the efficient EcoFresh silo degassing system, where even low residence times are enough to reliably remove low-volatility migratory substances.

Raw material for the Coperion food-safe rHDPE recyclate process consists of used HDPE beverage bottles or their caps. The material stream for rPP compounds consists of vegetable trays, packaging, and yogurt containers.

The material is fed into the extruder via Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeders, where it is first melted, intensively mixed, homogenized and degassed using twin screws.

Plastic is purified of solid foreign materials via a melt filter and then pelletized. Next the recompounds pass a second decontamination step in the newly developed and standardized EcoFresh silo degassing unit.

Food-grade tests available at Coperion Recycling Innovation Center

Recyclers can test the decontamination performance of the Coperion extruder and EcoFresh at the Coperion Recycling Innovation Center where both technologies are available for extensive trails using original material streams.

Together with Herbold Meckesheim’s Test Center, where grinding and cleaning of raw materials takes place, Coperion can reproduce the entire recycling process in its test centers.