Turkish plastics recycler Tanrıkulu (İzmit; www.tanrikulu.com.tr/en) started operating a new recycling line at its Basiskele site in mid-September. The plant features the recoSTAR dynamic 215 C-VAC, made by Starlinger (Vienna, Austria; www.starlinger.com), has a recycling capacity of 15,000 t/y for post-consumer HDPE and PP bottle flakes, and is equipped with a high-vacuum degassing unit; the investment sum was not disclosed.

While the rPP is mainly intended for use in the manufacture of plastic parts for cars, furniture, toys, and other injection moulded products, as well as pallets, buckets, or packaging films, the rPE is used in pipes, bottles, plastic bags, and similar products.

Related: First bottle-to-bottle PET recycling unit from Starlinger to be installed in Turkey

Tanrikulu currently has 10 plastics recycling and manufacturing plants in Kocaeli near Istanbul. Tanrıkulu originally started out in 1989 in Istanbul, recycling paper, glass, and metal waste. In 2006 the company began to produce regranulates from plastic waste and diversified by adding a facility for the production of PET sheets in 2014. It exports 50% of its PET sheet products to overseas markets. Its plastics recycling capacity doubled after opening the Izpack PET packaging production facility in 2018 and installing automatic plastic sorting systems in 2019.

In the 2021-22 business year, Starlinger achieved the highest turnover in the company’s history with more than EUR 360 mn.