Plastic Waste : Doğa PET takes PET recycling quality to new level using TOMRA

As the demand for sustainable solutions in the plastics industry grows, Doğa PET, a subsidiary of Türkiye’s Doğa Holding, is paving the way for a more eco-conscious future. The company is taking the lead in transforming the PET recycling landscape by incorporating advanced sensor-based sorting solutions from TOMRA Recycling. This elevates the purity of recycled materials that meet the rigorous demands of food and textile industries.

Doğa PET’s innovative recycling facility, located in northwestern Türkiye, stands as a beacon of progress in the waste management industry. The plant processes more than 4,200 tons of PET bottles monthly, producing 3,000 tons of PET flakes and 2,000 tons 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. 

Dr. Selçuk Gökhan Gerlikhan, General Manager of Doğa PET, highlights the pivotal role technology plays in modern recycling: “PET recycling has gained significant momentum in recent years. Instead of recycling PET waste into lower-value materials, it is crucial to use advanced technological infrastructure to recover it and produce materials with properties closely resembling those of virgin raw materials. TOMRA has been an invaluable partner since the start of this project. TOMRA’s solutions are widely recognized as industry benchmarks by our customers, so we plan to invest in additional sorters as we develop our lines.”

Commenting on the speed at which the plant achieved the targeted purity levels in its initial operations, Dr. Gerlikhan said: "We separate purity levels into two categories: polymer and color. Our target for polymer purity was 99.998% for the final product, and we achieved this. For color, our goal was to reach a purity level of 99% transparent PET in the final product. This includes reducing other colors, such as light blue PET, to below 1%. We have already exceeded expectations by achieving color variations below 0.5%."

Doğa PET aims to minimise the loss of light blue PET material while producing clear flakes, and separates the light blue material from the clear one when necessary. The blue bottles ejected during clear PET processing can be a valuable resource.
As the first facility in Türkiye to successfully separate light blue material from clear material, Doğa PET sorts light blue products from all other materials and recovers them for reuse as needed.

Serkan Orhan, Sales Manager for TOMRA Recycling Sorting in Türkiye and the Middle East, explains the full process:  "The plant’s production line features four AUTOSORT™ units which pre-sort the PET bottles. The first three sort by material and color before sending them to the subsequent crushing and washing line. The fourth AUTOSORT™ unit re-sorts the rejected products from the first three units, sending recoverable materials back to the first AUTOSORT™ to improve efficiency and material recovery. 

“After pre-sorting, the material is crushed, washed and dried before being sorted by target colors using the INNOSORT™ FLAKE, TOMRA’s highly flexible color and polymer flake sorting machine. Finally, the flakes are sent to the AUTOSORT™ FLAKE unit, a specialist solution for high-end flake sorting applications such as food-grade bottle-to-bottle recycling. At this sorting stage, the targeted high purity is achieved thanks to the reliable separation of color, polymer and metal contaminants, virtually eliminating all traces of PVC, PC, PS and other unwanted polymers.”

Doğa PET must demonstrate that less than 5% of the input material used in its washing process is non-food grade PET in order to produce food-grade pellets. To comply with this standard and improve material recovery across its sorting operations, the company has invested in an advanced waste analysis system powered by PolyPerception. This innovative solution uses cameras for real-time material detection and classification at critical points in the sorting facility.

At Doğa PET’s plant, the analyzer is installed just before the final of four AUTOSORT™ units. It continuously tracks and evaluates the amount of non-food grade PET bottles entering the washing line. By generating data for each batch or shift, the system allows Doğa PET to verify the food-grade quality of materials for every specific production period. This level of traceability provides essential assurance to both customers and certification authorities.

For end customers—especially those sourcing food-grade pellets from a Turkish PET producer—this transparency is critical. As Doğa PET exports to the European market, the ability to ensure and demonstrate compliance with strict quality standards is a key component of its value proposition.
 

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

Serkan Orhan concludes: "We are delighted to have been involved with Doğa on this project from the very beginning, advising on the feasibility study. Achieving the desired capacity and quality levels in such a short period of time with such a large investment was a great achievement, demonstrating how advanced sorting technology contributes to achieving virgin-like material qualities".