SERVI DORYL MANUFACTURES RECYCLED PLASTIC PLATES

In 2018, Servi Doryl supplied 4,000 plastic sterilisation plates to its customer Petit Pierre. Four years later, these plates have been recovered, recycled and re-injected into new ready-to-use plates.

sterilisation plate made from recycled plastic

Several recycling operations have already been carried out by Servi Doryl, notably the recycling of Roquefort Vernières moulds, but none of them resulted in the reinjection of a product from the same recycled product.

To date, recycled plastics cannot be used for food contact. Cheese moulds can be recycled, but the material cannot be reused to make a new cheese mould. It will be re-injected for exclusively non-food applications.

Thanks to Petit Pierre, we were finally able, in collaboration with our partner Ioké Plastic, to reinject sterilisation plates from recycled plastic (polypropylene).

PETIT PIERRE, A 100% FRENCH CANNERY

Petit Pierre is a French company belonging to the Gendreau group and specialises in seafood products. Each year, it produces millions of cans sold mainly in French and foreign FMGs.

Preserved herring with lemon and smoked black pepper

n order to eliminate all bacteria and micro-organisms, Petit Pierre cans are sterilised in autoclaves. The cans are then placed on plastic sterilisation plates. Here, the plates act as spacers. The cans are then stacked on top of each other to form a pile. Once the basket is full, the cans are inserted into the autoclave.

cans stored on sterilisation plates and ready to be put into the autoclave

The plates have a limited life span. They must be replaced with new ones every 4 years. They will allow the cans to be stored and thus save sterilisation time and energy efficiency. Handling will also be simplified thanks to a suction cup manipulator that will improve productivity and operator safety and comfort.

Stored cans without sterilisation plates — Without sterilisation plates

Cans stored with sterilisation plates — With sterilisation plates

PLATE RECYCLING PROCESS

Like Servi Doryl, Petit Pierre is committed to sustainable development and is carrying out numerous actions to reduce its energy consumption and waste. For example, fish bones and oils are recovered and recycled. It is therefore obvious that Petit Pierre has asked itself about the recycling of its plastic plates. Cyrille Leclercq, the site’s industrial director, approached François Raguin, Technical Sales Engineer at Servi Doryl, to discuss solutions and carry out this recycling operation together.

The plates were recovered by the company Embipack Ouest BPO located in Nantes (44). They were crushed into flakes. The flakes were then sorted, washed, dried and regenerated using an extruder into virgin granules to be used in production at Ioké Plastic. The plastic granules were heated and melted and then transferred to a mould in the desired shape for cooling.

The new plates were marketed and commissioned by the company Petit Pierre. The quality of the product remains unchanged. According to Mr. Leclercq, “this was only the first step”. For the manufacture of its next plates, Petit Pierre wishes to increase the percentage of recycled material and to add a colour, which will make it possible to differentiate the different generations of plates.

This great recycling operation will have limited the volume of waste and pollution, reduced the drain on natural resources and reintroduced a used product into the production, distribution and use cycle.

Thank you to Ioké Plastic for this collaboration and thank you to Petit Pierre for its trust !

For more details on our solutions, please contact us by phone at 02 47 96 11 50 or by email : contact@servidoryl.com.