Tomra partners with Doğa Holding to elevate PET recycling in Türkiye

Tomra Recycling has equipped Turkish recycler Doğa PET with sensor-based sorting solutions to produce high-quality PET flakes and rPET granules for food and textile applications.

“PET recycling is increasingly vital in today’s packaging industry because of its role in reducing plastic waste, conserving resources, and significantly lowering the carbon footprint,” Serkan Orhan, sales manager at Tomra Recycling Sorting in Türkiye and the Middle East, tells Packaging Insights.

“Producing recycled PET (rPET) requires up to 60% less energy compared to virgin PET production, resulting in significant CO2 emission reductions.”

Orhan says that recovering high-quality PET that closely matches virgin material properties is essential as consumers increasingly demand sustainable packaging amid increasingly stricter regulatory requirements. 

“As demonstrated by the success of Doğa PET, PET recycling is no longer about downcycling into lower-value products, but about creating premium, food-grade and textile-grade materials that support full material circularity.”

Doğa PET is a new recycling venture by Doğa Holding, one of the largest conglomerates in Türkiye. Located in northwestern Türkiye, Doğa PET’s plant processes more than 4,200 tons of PET bottles a month, producing 1,000 tons of PET flakes and 2,000 tons of rPET granules per month.

Ensuring polymer purity

Doğa PET’s plant incorporates Tomra’s full range of plastic sorting machines. These include four sorting all-rounder Autosort machines, two Innosort Flake units, and two Autosort Flake units for advanced flake sorting and purification. 

Tomra’s plastic sorting machines at the Doğa PET plant.According to the company, this combination of units optimizes product quality and processing capacity.

“Tomra’s sensor-based sorting technologies, Autosort, Innosort Flake, and Autosort Flake, combine near-infrared (NIR) detection, visual recognition, metal sensor, and laser technology to achieve outstanding levels of polymer and color purity,” explains Orhan. 

He says that the full solution at Doğa PET’s facility enables the production of PET flakes and rPET granules with polymer purity levels reaching 99.998% and transparent PET color purity levels exceeding 99.5%. 

“By accurately removing contaminants like PVC, metals, and other polymers, and separating light blue from clear PET when needed, we enable our customer to meet stringent food-grade and filament-grade textile standards.”

Doğa PET’s premium PET flakes can be used for PET sheet production, while the rPET granules are mainly aimed at bottle-to-bottle recycling and high-quality textile applications. The company indicates plans to primarily export its recycled products to European countries.

Dr. Selçuk Gökhan Gerlikhan, general manager at Doğa PET, comments: “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’s solutions are recognized as industry benchmarks by our customers, so we plan to invest in additional sorters as we develop our lines.”

Maximizing PET yield

Orhan argues that Tomra’s PET recycling process stands out from competitors due to its “exceptional” sorting accuracy, flexibility across different feedstocks, and ability to produce virgin-like material qualities. 

Doğa PET’s premium PET flakes can be used for PET sheet production.“Our holistic approach covers the entire value chain, from pre-sorting of PET bottles to advanced flake sorting, maximizing yield and minimizing material loss. Technologies such as PolyPerception’s AI-based waste analysis further enhance process control, certification transparency, and compliance with strict food-grade standards.”

“In addition to our technological leadership, Tomra’s global team brings decades of industry experience, supporting customers like Doğa PET from project planning to full operational optimization.”

He says that the combination of “advanced technology, deep industry expertise, and close partnership” enables recyclers “to quickly achieve, and often exceed, ambitious quality and capacity targets.”

“At Tomra, we are committed not only to advancing recycling volumes but also to enhancing recycling quality. Our collaboration with Doğa PET demonstrates how technology can support recyclers in delivering premium, high-purity materials back into critical sectors such as food, beverage, and textiles.”

Orhan concludes that as regulatory frameworks become more stringent and sustainability expectations continue to rise, Tomra remains dedicated to providing technologies and expertise that help partners future-proof their operations and thrive in a rapidly evolving market environment.