Buying plastic recycling equipment for a European plant requires more than matching throughput and price. The purchaser must define the waste stream, output specification, site utilities and conformity responsibilities for the complete installation. A CE mark on one machine does not prove that an assembled washing or pelletizing line is safe, compliant or able to make the required product.<\/p>\n
This guide is a procurement framework, not legal advice. Confirm the laws, harmonised standards, permits and national requirements that apply to the specific country, site, machine and date of placing on the market.<\/p>\n
European location does not create one standard recycling line. A deposit-return PET bottle stream, agricultural film, post-consumer polyolefin rigid packaging and industrial production scrap require different sorting, washing, drying and extrusion designs.<\/p>\n
Prepare a mass balance with:<\/p>\n
Capacity should be guaranteed on the stated feed condition and measured as accepted output where possible. A nominal input figure does not show yield or product quality.<\/p>\n
Receiving may require bale opening, manual quality control, optical sorting, metal detection and conveyors before shredding<\/a> or granulation<\/a>. Select rotor, knives, screen and feeding from the actual product geometry and contaminants. Occasional metal should be detected and removed; it should not be treated as normal shredder feed.<\/p>\n A plastic washing system<\/a> can combine prewashing, friction, hot washing, density separation and rinsing. The sequence must match the soil and adhesive load. A water float-sink tank separates by effective density; it cannot separate every polymer pair or produce purity without upstream and downstream controls.<\/p>\n Mechanical dewatering, squeezing and thermal drying should be selected from material form and the next process. PET, polyamide and polyolefin film do not share one final moisture target. Specify sampling and moisture test method at the handover point to storage or extrusion.<\/p>\n The pelletizing line<\/a> must match polymer, bulk density, moisture, print, volatile load and contamination. Review force feeding, screw configuration, degassing, melt filtration, cutter type, cooling and pellet handling as one system. For food-contact recycled plastic, machinery purchase alone does not establish regulatory authorization.<\/p>\n As of 12 August 2026, the Machinery Directive 2006\/42\/EC remains the principal machinery framework until the general application of Regulation (EU) 2023\/1230 on 20 January 2027. The official EUR-Lex machinery summary<\/a> explains the transition. A project delivered across that date should state which legal regime applies and how the supplier will handle it.<\/p>\n Depending on the equipment and installation, other EU legislation can also be relevant, such as electrical, electromagnetic-compatibility, pressure-equipment or potentially explosive-atmosphere rules. National workplace, noise, fire, building, lifting and environmental requirements may add obligations.<\/p>\n Ask for the conformity deliverables in the contract:<\/p>\n \u201cCE-certified\u201d is often used loosely. For most machinery, CE marking is a legal conformity process and declaration by the responsible economic operator; it is not simply a supplier-issued quality certificate.<\/p>\nWashing and separation<\/h3>\n
Dewatering and drying<\/h3>\n
Extrusion and pelletizing<\/h3>\n
EU machinery rules and CE responsibilities<\/h2>\n
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PPWR affects market demand, not machine approval<\/h2>\n