HDPE/LDPE/PP Agricultural Plastic Recycling Case Study in Romania: KiTech KCP100+120 Laser Filter Pelletizing Line Boosts Cost Efficiency

The production of agricultural plastic products — drip irrigation systems and agricultural piping, for example — inevitably generates waste materials such as drip tape offcuts, pipe scrap, and other production residues. Failing to recycle that material promptly wastes raw material and pushes up waste disposal costs.

As global plastic raw material costs keep climbing, more and more agricultural plastic manufacturers are recycling agricultural plastic waste in-house. By running production scrap through plastic pelletizing equipment, they turn it back into recycled pellets and cut their reliance on virgin resin.

KiTech Machinery recently supplied a Romanian agricultural plastics manufacturer with a KCP100+120 two-stage compacting-granulation line. Built around a laser filter screen changer and a water-ring pelletizing system, this laser filter pelletizing line is designed for a processing capacity of 350–400 kg/h. It mainly reprocesses drip tape and production offcuts from the client's recycling yard, and also handles some shredded pallet material.

1. Customer Pain Points: Rising Scrap Generation and Raw Material Costs

The customer makes drippers, drip irrigation systems, sprinkler irrigation systems, and agricultural piping. As production scales up, so does the volume of drip irrigation tape and other plastic scrap generated during manufacturing.

Selling that scrap as-is, or disposing of it as waste, leaves much of its recoverable plastic value unused. At the same time, rising virgin plastic raw material costs are adding further pressure on the company's production economics.

By installing this recycling and pelletizing system, the customer set out to solve three key problems:

1.1: Recycle more production scrap and reduce raw material waste;

1.2: Reprocess waste plastic into recycled pellets, cutting raw material procurement costs;

1.3: Reduce the downtime, labor, and consumable costs caused by frequent screen changes in traditional filtration methods.

The feedstock is not uniform, either. In addition to drip irrigation tape and scrap, it includes crushed pallet material, so the equipment has to process a mix of soft and hard plastic waste effectively.

2. KiTech Solution: KCP100+120 Two-Stage Agglomeration and Pelletizing Line

Working from the customer's material types, target capacity, and actual production requirements, KiTech Machinery configured a system built around the KCP100+120 two-stage agglomeration and pelletizing unit, a laser filter screen changer, and a water-ring pelletizing system.

The line processes pre-treated HDPE/LDPE/PP plastic waste into stable recycled pellets through five stages: agglomeration, plasticization, degassing, filtration, and pelletizing. The design focuses not only on hitting the target throughput of 350–400 kg/h, but also on material versatility, filtration efficiency, and long-term operating costs.

Highlight 1: Versatility—Handling Both Soft and Rigid Plastic Waste

The customer mainly recycles drip irrigation tape, production offcuts, agricultural plastic waste, and some crushed pallet material.

Drip irrigation tape and offcuts behave like flexible plastics, while crushed pallet material is relatively rigid. To accommodate these different raw material sources and forms, KiTech uses a two-stage agglomeration and pelletizing structure, which lets a single system cover a range of HDPE recycling applications.

This multi-purpose configuration saves enterprises from investing in separate equipment for different types of waste, and raises overall equipment utilization as a result.

For agricultural plastic manufacturers, the existing pelletizing system can keep running even if the waste source changes in the future — provided the material type and processing conditions remain compatible — which maximizes the value of the equipment investment.

Highlight 2: Laser Filter Screen Changer—Enhancing Filtration Efficiency

Agricultural plastic waste often contains soil, sand, and other impurities, so the filtration system directly affects both the quality of the recycled pellets and how continuously the pelletizing line can run.

Traditional screen plate filtration requires machine downtime for manual screen changes as impurities accumulate. Frequent screen changes disrupt production and drive up labor and filtration consumable costs.

The laser filter screen changer configured for this project minimizes the need for frequent manual intervention and improves continuous filtration efficiency. According to KiTech equipment data, the laser filtration system achieves a maximum filtration fineness of 180 mesh. Under standard operating conditions, the filter screen lasts roughly 3-4 months,and the material loss rate is around 1–3%.

For the customer, the benefits go beyond removing impurities from the melt. The laser filter pelletizing line also cuts downtime for screen changes, lowers labor and consumable costs, and runs more stably and continuously.

3. From Production Waste to Recycled Raw Material: Driving Cost Efficiency

For this client, the core value of the granulation equipment is not simply reaching a processing capacity of 350–400 kg/h — it is establishing a stable internal waste recycling system.

Drip irrigation tape, production offcuts, and crushed pallet fragments generated during manufacturing are pre-processed, then fed into the granulation line and transformed into recycled pellets.

This restores value to production waste that would otherwise require disposal, while reducing the need to purchase virgin plastic raw materials.

Granulation equipment that handles diverse HDPE/LDPE/PP waste streams — and runs a high-efficiency laser filtration system — also helps the enterprise lower long-term labor, consumables, and downtime costs.

From a long-term operational perspective, the case for recycling agricultural plastic in-house comes down to three benefits: higher waste utilization, less pressure on raw material procurement, and better equipment utilization.

4. Conclusion

For manufacturers of drip irrigation systems, agricultural piping, and other agricultural plastic products, production offcuts and scrap do not necessarily have to become waste.

With the right plastic pelletizing equipment, materials such as drip irrigation tape, agricultural plastic offcuts, and certain rigid HDPE waste can be fed back into HDPE recycling streams.

In this project in Romania, KiTech Machinery used its KCP100+120 two-stage agglomeration and pelletizing line — configured as a laser filter pelletizing line — to help the client handle a wide mix of plastic waste types, keep pelletizing performance stable, and optimize long-term operating costs. The solution not only improves waste utilization rates, but also gives agricultural plastic manufacturers a more flexible in-house recycling pathway.

If you are processing HDPE/LDPE/PP waste — drip irrigation tape, agricultural piping, agricultural plastic offcuts, or shredded pallets — KiTech Machinery can provide a tailored and pelletizing solution based on material type, contamination levels, target capacity, and specific pellet requirements.

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