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Recycling Irrigation Plastic Pipes

There are two types of irrigation systems made from plastic:

These types of irrigation systems distribute water through emitters. In thick-walled irrigation plastic pipes (> 300 µm), the emitters are fitted with an additional silicone membrane for pressure compensation. This ensures a uniform flow of water and precise irrigation. At the same time, the membrane also prevents the ingress of sand, soil and roots. On thin-walled irrigation hoses, (150-250 µm) LLDPE injection moldings are installed at regular intervals of about 20 cm.

High-quality requirements need to be met for subsurface irrigation. This is because the pipes have to provide a constant flow of water over several kilometers. This means that even small flaws lead to material being rejected during quality control. Purchasing virgin material involves considerable cost, so it makes sense to recycle the irrigation plastic pipes.

Often bulky and high-volume plastics and the different materials in the HDPE irrigation systems present major challenges in the recycling process. The EREMA Laserfilter in the ISEC evo recycling machine has three scrapers that continuously remove impurities, mainly the silicone used for the emitters, with each revolution. The efficiency of this filter enables high throughput rates in the recycling process and the highest recycled pellet quality.

The Advantages of Recycling Irrigation Plastic Pipes

Save costs

Energy efficient

High-quality recycled pellets

Processing Irrigation Plastic Pipes with ISEC evo

Repelletizing irrigation plastic pipes requires impurities such as silicones and foreign polymers to be filtered out completely. The ISEC evo from PURE LOOP with double degassing and the EREMA Laserfilter is particularly well suited for this purpose. Manufacturers that recycle their drip tapes and irrigation pipes using PURE LOOP's technology achieve refeeding quotas of up to 20 percent, without sacrificing quality.

The advantages of the machine are already noticeable at the material intake. The ISEC evo is characterized by a flexible material feed system. Regardless of whether bulky pipes, production waste, start-up clumps, or complete reels with hoses - the machine handles all types of material thanks to its large conveying chamber width and cutting chamber width.

Machine version "degassed" with Laserfilter

The quality control process for irrigation plastic pipes is carried out using water. This verifies that the irrigation pipes meet the strict standards of a maximum of two pinholes per 10 kilometers. Moisture adds an additional complication to the recycling process. That is why a recycling machine with extruder degassing is needed to avoid a loss of quality of the recycled pellets. This machine configuration processes hygroscopic materials with a total moisture content of up to 4% or other impurities.

Machines with degassing technology remove moisture at two points.

  1. During reverse degassing, which takes place in the conical transition between the shredder and the extruder. Here, the plastic is heated, gently melted and moisture is degassed in reverse.
  2. The moisture is then removed from the melt using highly efficient vacuum-assisted degassing.

The EREMA Laserfilter quickly and continuously removes impurities, ensuring high throughput rates and high-quality recycled pellets.

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Would you like to know more about processing irrigation plastic pipes?

We would be pleased to help you free of charge and without obligation.

Highly Flexible Plant to Pelletize Irrigation Plastic Pipes

The ISEC evo efficiently recycles a variety of materials in different shapes:

  • Thick-walled pipes
  • Thin-walled tapes
  • Clumps
  • Whole rolls

Processing start-up clumps

The ISEC evo recycling machine can also process clumps from the production of irrigation plastic pipes. The material can then be used again in the production of drip tapes and thick-walled pipes.

Success Story 

Customers who are already recycling pipes and hoses using the ISEC evo machine have produced irrigation plastic pipes and hoses containing recycled pellets in joint trials together with PURE LOOP. The tests revealed the following details:

  • HDPE/LDPE standard drip tapes (with a thickness of 100 µm) were produced using a recycled pellet content of 10 percent (pellets produced using ISEC evo). In the quality control test described above, the same quality criteria were achieved over 48 hours as with hoses made from 100% virgin material.
  • HDPE/LDPE standard drip tapes (with a thickness of 200 µm) were produced using a recycled pellet content of 25 percent (pellets produced using ISEC evo). In the quality control test described above, the same criteria were achieved over 48 hours as with hoses made from 100% virgin material.
  • HDPE irrigation plastic pipes (with a thickness of 400 µm) with silicon emitters were produced using a recycled pellet content of 30 percent (pellets produced using ISEC evo). In the quality control test described above, the same criteria were achieved over 24 hours as with hoses made from 100% virgin material.

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