Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

Buyer-firstOpen route · visible proof

Buyer guide · Recycling

Plastic recycling line from China

Plastic recycling line is a name for at least three different plants, washing, pelletizing and crushing, and the offers you compare may not even be the same kind of machine unless you state your input and your output first.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 1 October 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Line type and scope

A washing line ends in clean flakes. A pelletizing line melts flakes or scrap into pellets. A full line does both. Write down where your line starts and ends, then check each offer against that.

Extruder and screw

On a pelletizing line, ask single or twin screw, screw diameter and length ratio, barrel material, and whether the drive is sized for your polymer.

Degassing and melt filtration

Printed film and wet flakes release gas and carry dirt. Ask how many vent zones, what vacuum, and whether the melt filter changes screens without stopping.

Cutter-compactor or feeder

Light film needs compacting before it reaches the screw. Ask whether a compactor is included and whether it is matched to the extruder output.

Pellet cutting and cooling

Strand cutting, water ring and underwater cutting give different pellet shapes and suit different polymers. Ask which, and what drying follows.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Your input by polymer and form: PE film, PP bags, HDPE rigid, PET bottles, with photos.
Whether it arrives clean production scrap or post-consumer and dirty.
The output you sell: flakes, pellets, or both, and your buyer's specification.
Tonnes per day needed, measured on your own material.
Water, power and floor space available, and where waste water and filter residue go.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Run your own material through the line for a timed period after it reaches steady state.	Output weighed per hour at or above the offered figure, with the melt temperature and pressure recorded.
Send pellet samples to a laboratory for melt flow and moisture.	Results inside the specification your buyer gave you, written into the contract before the test.
Change the melt filter screen during the run.	The line keeps running, or stops only for the time stated in the offer.

The documents that must arrive with it.

One EU Declaration of Conformity covering the line as an assembly, under 2006/42/EC until 19 January 2027, then Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.
Electrical drawings with low voltage 2014/35/EU and EMC 2014/30/EU references.
A layout drawing showing every machine in scope, so what is missing is visible before shipping.

The one people forget. The screw and barrel drawings with material and hardening. When they wear, a local workshop can only quote a replacement if it has the drawings.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

You only need to cut clean production scrap back to regrind for your own moulding.

A recycling granulator. No melting, no line, far less power.

Your input is dirty agricultural or household film.

Start with a plastic film washing line. A pelletizing line fed with dirty film will clog filters and make poor pellets.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 10Ten plastic recycling line listings in one marketplace search, checked October 2026: nine showed asking prices from US$5,000 to US$500,000. None stated a throughput. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 10By title, the same ten listings, checked October 2026, were four washing lines, three pelletizing lines, two combined lines and one crushing line.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

Recycling granulator. Choose a recycling granulator when you only need regrind, not pellets.
Plastic film washing line. Add a plastic film washing line before pelletizing when your film arrives dirty.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Recycling page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European plastic recycling line: what do I check?+

Screw and barrel design, degassing, melt filtration and parts support. Run your own material on both and compare pellet quality and output weighed per hour.

What goes on a plastic recycling line inspection checklist?+

The full scope against the layout drawing, a timed run on your material, pellet lab results, a screen change, guarding on cutters and shredders, and serial plates against the declaration.

Does a plastic recycling line need one CE declaration or several?+

A line sold as an assembly needs one Declaration of Conformity for the whole, with the technical file behind it. Separate marks on each machine do not cover the assembly.

Who is the EU importer of a recycling line?+

The business placing it on the EU market, usually you when buying direct. The permit to treat plastic waste on your site is your matter as operator.

Contact

Tell us what you need.

Send a machine, a quotation you want checked, or a question. We reply with what we would look at first.