The quick answer: 2026 bands by stage
The four rows are a ladder of what you can sell, not of how fast you can run. A granulator sells size reduction — useful inside somebody else's process, but not a product. The washing line is the first row that makes something a buyer will take against a spec sheet: label removal, float-sink separation, hot wash and drying are all there to get contamination out, which is why the hot-wash stage alone accounts for roughly a quarter of a PET line's cost. The pelletizing add-on is best read as a market purchase rather than a capacity one — flakes sell to the narrower set of converters equipped to feed them, granules sell to anyone with an extruder, and the USD 80,000–120,000 buys that wider buyer base and the price per tonne that comes with it.
For a South African plant, the two lines that decide whether a band is affordable are water and power, and neither appears in the machine quote. Hot washing consumes water and returns it dirty, so the plant needs a water loop and a discharge route the municipality will actually consent to — designed in at layout stage that is a pump, a settling stage and filtration; retrofitted afterwards it is a civils job. Power is the other: friction washers, dryers and an extruder draw their peak at the same time, and the connection has to be sized to that peak rather than the average, which makes pelletizing a step change on the electrical side as well as the capital side. Then check utilisation before you check the band — a 500 kg/h line on one eight-hour shift clears about four tonnes a day, and if collection cannot feed that consistently, the cheaper row running a second shift will out-earn the bigger one standing still.
| Stage | 2026 band | What you're actually buying |
|---|---|---|
| Granulators & crushers | Low tens of thousands | Size reduction only — a component, not a recycling business |
| Washing line, 300–1,000 kg/h | USD 120,000–350,000 | Label remover, float-sink, hot wash, friction wash, drying — the tier that makes flakes buyers accept |
| PET bottle washing, 500 kg/h | USD 150,000–200,000 | Fibre-grade flakes; the hot-wash stage alone is roughly a quarter of the line cost |
| Pelletizing add-on | +USD 80,000–120,000 | Flakes → granules: wider buyer base, better price per tonne |
Feedstock is the business
A recycling line eats tonnes per shift, every shift — and the operators who make money secured their bales before their machines: collection agreements, buy-back centre relationships, industrial scrap contracts. Price your feedstock per tonne, delivered and sorted, before pricing any machine; a line at 40% utilisation because the bales didn't come is the standard failure mode of this industry, and no machine spec fixes it.
What the machine price leaves out
- Wash water — hot washing needs water treatment and responsible discharge; budget the water loop as part of the plant.
- Power — friction washers, dryers and extruders are energy-hungry; the connection is sized to the peak.
- Sorting labour and space — inbound bales need sorting lines and yard space that seldom appear in machine quotes.
- The landed leg — 25–45% on top of ex-works via the estimator; duty on most machinery under HS 84 is 0% (check your heading).
Injection-side capacity — turning your granules into products — is priced in the injection moulding machine guide; bags, pipe and preforms in the bag, pipe and preform guide.
What you're buying from CISH: a working plant, not a crate
Recycling lines delivered as working capacity: configuration matched to your feedstock (bottle, film, rigid), OEM audit in China, a factory acceptance test on your bales, freight and clearing, installation and commissioning, training and documented handover. Start with how turnkey delivery works.