Plastic regeneration at Myplas USA, Inc., Rogers, Minnesota
In Rogers, Minnesota, the film sorting line for the new plastic regeneration plant was recently completed for Myplas USA, Inc., the US branch of Myplas, South Africa’s leading manufacturer of recycled plastic compounds.
Designed and custom-built by Aktid’s Italian teams, this sorting line is the perfect solution for Myplas’ specific requirements. Integrated upstream of the plastic film recycling facility, the impressive 16,000 m² plant represents a first for Myplas in the United States. Operational since summer 2023, it now employs more than 200 people.
The plant has an ambitious goal: to meet a major sustainable development challenge by mechanically recycling nearly 40,000 tonnes of polypropylene (PP) and low- and high-density polyethylene (LDPE/HDPE) film and packaging every year.
The plastic regeneration process aims to transform plastic film into a recycled raw material that meets food and non-food quality standards, with properties comparable to those of virgin material.
ETHICAL COLLABORATION & ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
This project was made possible in particular by the investment of the MBOLD coalition and its members, which include General Mills, Schwan’s Company, Charter Next Generation, Target and Ecolab. This Minnesota-based coalition of food and agriculture industry leaders is working to address the global challenges facing the food and agriculture sector by developing operational solutions.
Its members are leading companies operating at all levels of the food and agriculture supply chain, as well as researchers, not-for-profit organisations, and other partners, all committed to shaping the future of the food industry.
Myplas has established partnerships with these major Minnesota companies to guarantee a constant supply of plastic. These include film used on pallets at General Mills, boat packaging, protective film and plastic bags collected from Target shops.
In addition, these partnerships ensure the sale of recycled resin to plastic film manufacturers such as Charter Next Generation.
In recognition of its efforts, Myplas USA won the “Project of the Year” award by the Economic Development Association of Minnesota (EDAM) in 2023.
“You can’t recycle alone. You need partners throughout the supply chain who can contribute, and we found that in Minnesota,” declared Andrew Pieterse, CEO of Myplas.
“We try to buy second-hand films from partners who then buy them back from us.”
Process by Aktid Italia
The solution designed and produced by Aktid’s Italian teams enables plastic films to be efficiently sorted in order to optimise the purity of the materials and transform them into high-quality recycled raw materials, also known as secondary raw materials.
This sorting line, driven by a state-of-the-art automation system, incorporates the latest technologies to deliver exceptional performance.
Equipped with a dosing and bale-opening hopper, it ensures a regular, consistent inflow to the line. The materials are then sent to a vibrating screen, which separates the fine fractions from the coarser ones. These then pass through a sorting cabin, where quality operators remove the non-recoverable materials.
The resulting flow of recoverable plastic is then sent to an overband and an eddy current to extract the ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Finally, the largest materials are shredded.
Once this initial sorting stage has been completed, the flow can then be directed to the second stage of the process: recycling.
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