The Idea of Circularity Is Gaining Momentum

The plastics sector has owned up to its responsibility. This thesis is put forward by Prof. Hans-Josef Endres in our Special on the circular economy in which he summarizes important trends at K 2019 for recycling precious plastics (p. 19). So, with K over, have all the problems been solved?

Unfortunately not. In short-lived applications, plastics lose their value all too quickly once their purpose has been fulfilled – packaging is a prime example. We are reminded of this by the mountains of superfluous gift wrapping after Christmas. We remove the contents, and the previously important functions of the now empty wrapping are immediately rendered obsolete, no matter what material has protected the product until then. Even, and especially, a high-tech product such as multilayer film then becomes useless.

But does it necessarily have to be worthless? No, argues Alexander Baumgartner, head of a large manufacturer of flexible packaging and chairman of the Flexible Packaging Europe association. He sees a definite need to catch up in Europe when it comes to dealing with plastic waste. A look at Asia, where the recycling industry is receiving a boost from political regulations, shows – surprisingly – how things could be different (p. 16). Such ideas for more sustainable products and recycling systems are always welcome, wherever they are to be found.

We wish you a good start to the New Year, in which we hereby launch the 110th volume of Kunststoffe – a success story for the sustainable transfer of technological know-how that continues to motivate us.

Editorial Klotz

Klotz, Karlhorst, Dr.

Reason to Celebrate 30th International Colloquium of Plastics Technology and  70 Years of the IKV

For the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, 2020 is an anniversary year in three different ways. The RWTH Aachen University is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and is marking the occasion, by hosting the International Colloquium of Plastics Technology for the 30th time – with special feature on the previous day. A preview of the celebrations.

The 30th International Colloquium of Plastics Technology will take place on March 11 and 12, 2020, at the Eurogress Aachen, Germany. To mark the anniversary, on March 10, the IKV is also hosting the “International Symposium on Plastics Technology” in the VIP area of the Aachen Soccer Stadium. The IKV Colloquium presents the full gamut of IKV research and, targets its practically oriented research primarily at the plastics industry. The symposium, on the other hand, offers talks by scientists from 14 countries with the aim of promoting scientific discourse between scientists and industry.

The key topics of the Colloquium consist of the plenary talks on

<ul><li>the circular economy,</li><li>digitalization (plastics industry 4.0) and</li><li>additive manufacturing.</li></ul>

The Colloquium’s research topics are offered in 15 sessions. Each session comprises two talks from the IKV, accompanied by a keynote talk by an expert from industry (see Box below). The Colloquium talks are simultaneously translated into English.

The Symposium, which is held entirely in English, also covers topics such as the circular economy, plastics industry 4.0 and additive manufacturing, as well as lightweight design technologies, injection molding and extrusion. Professor Christian Hopmann, Head of the Institute, describes the different orientation as follows: “At the IKV, we always keep both aspects in view – knowledge-driven basic research and application-driven research for industry. We want our symposium to provide space for basic research and have therefore asked scientists from all over the world to present their projects and discuss them with other scientists and industrialists.”

Live Research: From the Lecture Hall to the Pilot Plant

At the colloquium, application-driven research is particularly prominent in the “IKV 360°” program item. In the afternoon of the first event day, the IKV will open its doors to the colloquium participants, presenting its research activities live in its own pilot facilities and labs. The scientists will be available for talks alongside the running systems.

In mid-November, media representatives had the opportunity to inspect some of the systems. At one injection molding station, for example, a new method for automated and precision design of cooling channel systems in injection molds was presented. An optimization algorithm calculates the temperature distribution in the mold with the condition that the part should cool as uniformly as possible, with the most homogeneous density distribution possible at the end of the injection molding cycle. The result is used to compute a conformal cooling channel layout; iteration loops are no longer necessary.

The layer-by-layer build-up in additive manufacturing results in the disadvantage of worse mechanical properties in the build direction. To optimize the part properties, the IKV has developed a special heating/cooling system for the joining zone, which could be viewed at another station. Shortly before the current layer is deposited, the layer deposited previously is heated in order to improve the bonding between the two layers, and therefore the tensile strength in the build direction. The heating-cooling system has at its core an air heater, which heats the airflow to up to 650 °C, and thereby heats the layer by convection. The air heater is installed in a hybrid manufacturing cell, consisting of a screw extruder and a six-axis robot, and is combined with active layer cooling, which has a beneficial influence on the dimensional stability (Fig. 1).

In blown film extrusion, the melt throughput, and thus the productivity, are highly dependent on the degree of heat extraction from the tubular film. Another highly promising topic on the tour was the flexible and adaptive air-guidance system, which offers increased cooling performance in blown film extrusion. The newly developed system is connected downstream of conventional air cooling. Thanks to the flexible membrane, it targets and accelerates the flow of cooling air between the film bubble and the membrane, thereby forming the venturi effect. The venturi effect increases heat transfer to the cooling air and also improves the bubble stability (Fig. 2). According to the IKV, the system increases throughput during blown film extrusion by up to 32 %.

Other fixed events at the Colloquium are the presentation of the Georg Menges award and the industry exhibition in the foyer of Eurogress Aachen. The latter offers exhibitors a platform for presenting solutions for the plastics industry and holding discussions with industrial partners. The IKV expects participants to include exhibitors along the entire supply chain – and around 800 technical experts from the global plastics industry.

Institute Director Professor Christian Hopmann expects 800 participants to attend the 30th International Colloquium of Plastics Technology

Fig. 1. In additive manufacturing, the previous layer is first heated in order to improve the layer bonding, and then the polymer just deposited is cooled to improve the dimensional stability

Fig. 2. Up to 32 % more throughput in blown film extrusion is made possible by an innovative adaptive air guidance system

Name - Hauptartikel

For the 30th International Colloquium on Plastics Technology, includes the following sessions:

<ul><li> Injection molding set-up via human-machine interfaces and AI</li><li> Throughput increase and quality assurance in packaging technology</li><li>Simulation-based optimization of the mixing and mold technology in extrusion</li><li> New testing and quality assurance methods for high-performance FRP</li><li> Multiscalar material modeling to predict part properties</li><li> Process and design optimization in additive manufacturing</li></ul>

You can find the complete program with all sessions and information at:

<a href="http://www.ikv-kolloquium.de/en" target="_blank">www.ikv-kolloquium.de/en</a>

Extrusion

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Spritzgießen

Doriat, Clemens, Dr.

Temperiertechnik

Künstliche Intelligenz für die Qualitätssicherung

Industrie 4.0

Industrie 4.0 für die Qualitätssicherung

Extrusionswerkzeuge

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Additive Fertigung

Extrusionsanlagen

Continuously Investing in  Expertise and Skills

At framas, Advanced Training of All Employees Is a Cornerstone of the Company’s Strategy

Digital transformation presents concrete challenges in a dynamic way. Continually mastering them, time and again, requires a workforce with a high degree of expertise and know-how. The plastics processor framas therefore not only regards training and ongoing education as essential, they usually begin directly on recruitment. It is now three years since the SME re-prioritized the issue of qualification as a strategically important competitive factor and began to promote it.

Framas Kunststofftechnik GmbH, of Pirmasens, Germany, is a hidden champion – “hidden,” literally because its functional injection molded components are inconspicuously incorporated into sports, functional and fashion shoes. The soles, heel elements, heel counters, insoles and lasts are not only used in brand-name sports shoe labels, such as adidas, Puma, Nike and New Balance, or in safety shoes by Uvex and Haix. Only insiders know that they are also used in orthopedics. Besides its expertise in all matters concerning shoes, the global player, with subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, the USA and Vietnam, also possesses a high degree of injection molding competence in electronics and automotive technology.

Digital Transformation: Further Process Changes Lie Ahead

As a technology-driven and highly networked company, framas saw itself confronted with urgent issues such as collaboration (human/machine) and digitalization at a very early stage. As a result, the digital transformation also led to some rethinking, particularly in production. This occupies about two thirds of the global workforce of 3800 (135 of them at the company headquarters in Westphalia, Germany), with a degree of automation currently around 85 % at the German site and 40 % globally. A current example: framas is currently trialing the maintenance of machines using “augmented reality.” The employee wears a semi-digital headset, which projects information graphics or circuit diagrams onto the actual image, and in this way guides him virtually through all the required maintenance steps.

Carsten Schmidt thinks that this is by no means the end of the line. The General Director of framas Kunststofftechnik GmbH sees many manpower-driven areas that can be replaced with digital or algorithmic technology in the short and medium term. Thus, in the foreseeable future, co-robots, supporting humans at the workplace, will take over many routine jobs and 3D data creation and 3D printing will digitalize complete workflows in sampling. In future, customers will receive digital files instead of tactile samples, and be able to examine them with corresponding 3D devices – with sections, changing perspectives and undreamt-of analytical features.

Challenging and Fostering People as the Success Factor

“We shall and must continue along this road if we want to continue to play in the big league,” stresses Schmidt. Since this can only be achieved with well-trained employees, framas considers human resources to be its most important capital asset: “We see retaining and expanding skills as a highly profitable investment, and, to that extent, qualification of employees as an ongoing process and mission-critical task.”

For the young people at framas, their “lifelong learning” starts with their training as industrial clerks, tool mechanics (mold construction) and process engineers for plastics and rubber technology (molded parts) or via dual study courses, e. g. the cooperative study model (Kosmo) or medium-sized enterprises, each in cooperation with Kaiserslautern University, Germany, and its sites in Pirmasens and Zweibrücken, Germany.

But seasoned employees are also required and encouraged to continue developing. For example, the training and advanced education measures conducted at framas are usually already engaged directly on recruitment, coordinated via the HR department and department managers. This is based on individual development wishes just as much as on the needs of the company. The offers are in many cases obligatory, but in other cases are contributed by the employees themselves.

Internal and External Qualification Measures

The internal measures include, e. g., a special offer for machine setters, which was designed for framas by external specialists and teaches the most varied methodologies starting from the material properties of different polymers through to the fundamentals of injection molding; the modular, interdependent workshops focus, among other things, also on quality management and assurance. After the initial training, the courses are continued and assigned according to position, e. g. in order to qualify production employees as shift leaders.

A 12 to 18-month course, and a purely internal training program, takes the trainee a step further in the field of shoe last modeling, and even closes a gap. Thus, the shoe last modeler no longer ranks among the official training professions, but enjoys greater popularity – especially among the graduates of the German College of Shoemaking (DSF), which is also based in Pirmasens.

External qualification offers are implemented via specialized providers, such as the Haufe Akademie or the St. Gallen Management School in Switzerland. These involve needs-oriented topics, such as “From Colleague to Manager” for employees just promoted to a new managerial function, just as much as technical topics. The wide spectrum ranges from company controlling and export, through ISO certification, to marketing, personnel leadership and agile management.

Traditional training formats are often replaced by webinars, particularly for short events. But extensive qualifications are also performed digitally – a current example is the training of an employee as a human resources manager in the form of “blended learning.” With this measure by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), classical in-class lectures and digital learning are combined – the participants consolidate their knowledge by working by themselves between the sessions at IHK Pfalz. Accompanying exchange with other participants and lecturers is possible in the form of forums, chats and email.

If all internal and external measures are taken together, every employee at framas is integrated into the concept of continuous qualification measures.

Whether classical, digital or in blended form: regular training and advanced education have a direct impact on competitiveness by retaining and expanding competences and skills, especially in technology-driven market segments. However, for framas, maintaining its human capital also pays off elsewhere. An extra measure of motivation must also be put in the balance, since the employer invests actively in its employees and opens up lucrative internal career opportunities for them. framas thus also consistently fills its national and international management positions from within its own ranks. And, moreover, an employee-friendly corporate culture and regular HR investment also pay off in the form of active company loyalty.

Advanced training is continually required and fostered – whether for new recruits or seasoned employees

The way to digitalized manufacturing is paved. The new injection-molding machines at framas give employees an insight into the processes of smart production planning, complete traceability and automated quality testing

… to Carsten Schmidt, General Director of framas Kunststofftechnik GmbH

Mr. Schmidt, what do you see as the biggest driver of the need for continuous qualification?

I should first mention the current trends in injection molding, such as automation and robotics. In addition, the employees are subject to requirements from digital transformation – in the context of Industry 4.0. We are continually pushing ahead with digitalization, especially in production. Here, we are currently introducing new software for process digitalization in order to better plan personnel deployment and production or enable predictive and preventive maintenance. After all, we do not operate on the market in isolation. On the contrary, the close intermeshing within the supply chain requires us to be on the same technical level as our customers and partners. Standing still also means stopping.

Don’t increasing automation and fostering of co-robotics also threaten the employees’ jobs?

Only when it is matter of replacing purely monotonous tasks for which there will simply no longer be a job market over time. We suffered similar experiences in the nineties in Westphalia, Germany, with the drastic decline in the shoe manufacturing industry, which had dominated the labor market until then and had also offered good money to poorly qualified, untrained workers. Only skilled workers survived the structural transformation; untrained people fell by the wayside. To this extent, personal competitiveness is a major issue and is associated with continually improving one’s knowledge and skills, and staying permanently up to date.

How do your employees accept the education and training programs?

Very well. We are surprised ourselves by the strong response and the motivation that each individual brings along. They recognize and appreciate framas’s willingness to invest in its personnel. It is good to see how more and more employees approach us on their own initiative with their own ideas about their individual development. They almost always coincide with the actual requirements and challenges of the company and job.

How do you motivate employees to undergo life-long learning?

We place value on praising our employees’ successes and also rewarding their commitment financially. In addition, framas bears the costs for approved measures and also releases the employees to attend. But their self-motivation must not be underestimated, since everyone knows today how important knowledge and skills are in professional life.

What career opportunities are available internally?

We are a growing company that can always offer development opportunities for good and motivated employees. Particularly for young people, it is very attractive to be deployed for a time at one of our global sites – of course, the international context is also a matter of give and take. In addition, framas also prefers to fill its management positions from within its own ranks. It was the same for me: I trained here as a shoe last modeler, then underwent education and was eventually appointed managing director at the age of 30.

“More and more employees approach us on their own initiative with their own ideas“

Andreas Becker M.A. is a technical journalist from Rodalben, Palatinate, Germany.

Soft Skills

Qualitätsmanagement

Wissensmanagement

Wirtschaft

Strategie und Organisation

Digitale Transformation

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Weiterbildung, allgemeine

Dienstleistungen

Seminare, Schulungen, Kongresse

Fertigungsautomation

Why Recycled Films Are Not Necessarily Sustainable

The increasing volume of plastic waste and the growing pollution of the oceans by such waste have brought the sustainable handling of plastic products into the focus of society and politics. Both recycling and bioplastics can be a part of a strategy for greater sustainability, but they are not free of side effects. In order to avoid irrational decisions, it is important to assess their effects comprehensively.

Despite all public criticism of plastics (Fig. 1), they make an important contribution to sustainability, for example through fuel savings in the transport sector. Fuel savings can be attained through reduced vehicle weight and lighter packaging. The problem, however, is that clear recommendations to increase the sustainability of plastic products do not exist at the moment.

Higher recycling rates do not necessarily mean increased resource efficiency, and bioplastics are criticized for the use of pesticides and high-water consumption as well as poorer working conditions in cultivation [1, 2]. It is thus important to find out which measures make sense in specific applications and contribute to a measurable increase in sustainability.

How Can Sustainability Be Comprehensively Assessed?

Sustainability is generally based on three pillars: ecological, economic and social sustainability [3]. The ecological problems of the 21st century include global warming, the use of resources, the destruction of biodiversity and threats to human health. Economic problems include the instability of the financial markets, national debt and negative developments in the labor market. Social problems are poverty, demographic aberrations, violent conflicts and inequality of opportunity [4]. The weighting of the individual fields is controversial, but ecological sustainability is given the highest priority [5].

Life cycle analysis (LCA) can be used to assess the ecological sustainability of a product, for example, over its entire life cycle [6]. With the introduction of DIN EN ISO 14040 on 19 June 2006, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) laid down principles and framework conditions for LCA preparation, the phases and interactions of which are described in more detail in DIN EN ISO 14044 (Fig. 2) [7, 8].

A lot of LCA studies for plastic products have already been published [9–11]. Although the results of the studies can provide recommendations for greater sustainability, the statements must always be viewed in their respective contexts.

Furthermore, the statements are not generally valid. This is due to a lack of standards, so that the respective choice of

<ul><li>the functional unit,</li><li>the allocation method,</li><li>the life cycle inventory,</li><li>and the method of impact assessment</li></ul>

Against this background, the Reifenhäuser Group of Troisdorf, Germany, developed, in cooperation with the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV), Aachen, Germany, a generally applicable calculation method for an LCA that includes all relevant energy and material flows along the life cycle of plastic films and nonwovens.

The calculation concept should support product designers in the development of sustainable plastic products. The analysis covers the entire life cycle of these products: the scope of the study therefore includes the production of raw material, the processing into plastic granulate, further processing in extrusion, and thermal recovery or mechanical recycling, considering all necessary transport routes.

Structure of a General  Calculation Method

In the following, the framework conditions of the developed calculation method for the preparation of an LCA are presented:

As the functional unit for the film or nonwoven, 1m² of the product is used in the calculation concept, which is also common in previous studies [9 to 11]. For a comparison of two products, attention must be paid in each case to the functional fulfilment. Two films or nonwovens can only be compared if both have the required properties to fulfil the function. This means that the comparable products must have e. g. the same barrier or mechanical properties.

If the use of recyclate is also accounted for in an LCA, responsibility for the environmental impact of the recycling process must be apportioned. The question is whether the distributor of the recyclable product or the user of the recyclate has to pay for the environmental impact of the recycling process, and how a credit for recycling-friendly design can be issued. There are different methods for allocating environmental impacts over the life cycle.

Assuming that both the placing on the market and the acceptance of recycled material need to be encouraged in the current market, the present study assumes a 50:50 allocation [12], which encourages both the use of recycled material and the production of recyclable products. Figure 3 schematically shows the allocation of responsibilities. Users A and C pay the costs for the production of the virgin material and for the disposal of the product in equal proportions, and also 50 % of the recycling costs. User B only has to pay 50 % of the costs of the upstream or downstream recycling process, because he puts recycled material back into circulation. As long as the recycling process has advantages compared to the production and the use of virgin material, User B therefore has the lowest value in the LCA.

After the functional unit and the allocation method have been determined, an LCA is created in a next step. For the data collection in the life cycle inventory analysis, all relevant energy and material flows along the entire life cycle of the extrusion products film and nonwoven must be considered. Figure 4 shows a schematic representation of the life cycle and the process steps. The process steps include the use of recyclate, the production of petrochemical and bio-based plastics, extrusion, disposal and transportation.

The data used to create the LCA are taken from Reifenhäuser, raw material suppliers and the software tool SimaPro (manufacturer: Pré Consultants BV, Amersfoort, Netherlands) for LCA creation that contains numerous databases. The balance sheets of the individual process steps (explained in detail in [13]) are combined into an overall balance sheet, which has to be evaluated with regard to its sustainability in a final step. The CO2 footprint (carbon footprint) is not sufficient here, because it falsifies the result, especially when bio-based plastics are used. For example, acidification (acid rain), eutrophication or water and land requirements in agriculture are not considered [10, 14]. Eutrophication refers to the input of nutrients containing phosphorus or nitrogen into ecosystems through agricultural fertilization, wastewater and combustion processes. Effects of acidification include fish mortality, forest damage, vegetation damage due to nutrient leaching and groundwater contamination by remobilized heavy metals [3, 10, 14].

For a better impact assessment, the ReCiPe method (Fig. 5) is suitable, in which 18 results categories are identified from the results of the LCA and grouped into three categories “human toxicity, ecotoxicity and resources” [15]. The carbon footprint is hidden behind the impact category “global warming”.

“Human toxicity” describes the effects of the release of chemicals into the environment and the associated damage to human health [17]. The used scale is the reduced life expectancy due to diseases such as cancer and the lost life years as a result, expressed by the DALY index (Disability Adjusted Lost Life Years) [18].

“Ecotoxicity” means the effects of harmful substances on terrestrial and aquatic organisms [3, 19]. The uptake of pollutants or changes in living conditions can lead to changes in individual organisms, an entire population or the ecosystem. The indicator “species/FU” refers to the local loss of a species in an ecosystem and the associated consequences [3, 18].

The assessment of economic viability is based on “resource consumption”, which describes the cost of the product in US dollars (USD) per functional unit.

Evaluation Based on Various  Case Studies

With the developed calculation concept, different application examples can subsequently be evaluated. Different films with similar properties that are suitable for the same applications are compared. The data are based on real production parameters. For a better assessment of the results, the diagrams also show the values for human toxicity, ecotoxicity and resources for a 1 km car journey with a “Euro 5 diesel engine”.

In a first example, the environmental impacts of fruit and vegetable bags made of petrochemical and bio-based plastics in supermarkets are assessed, and the disposal scenarios for the bags are compared (Fig. 6). Thermal recycling (scenarios S1, S3, S5) and mechanical recycling of post-consumer recyclate (S2) can be used for this purpose. Post-industrial recycling is not considered here, since the fruit and vegetable packaging is disposed of only in private households. The hypothetical scenario of home composting (S4) for the bioplastic PLA is also considered.

The lowest human toxicity values are achieved by HDPE fruit bags (scenarios S1 and S2), with mechanical recycling (S2) performing slightly better than thermal recovery (S1). In terms of ecotoxicity, S1 even achieves a negative value because thermal recovery leads to energy substitution. Since the calorific value of polyolefins (up to 44 MJ/kg) is even higher than the calorific value of fuel oil (42 MJ/kg), so much energy can be substituted that the ecotoxicity of production is overcompensated [20]. The resource consumption in scenario S2 is lower than in S1 because mechanical recycling conserves resources.

Scenarios S3 to S5 deal with bio-based plastics (PLA), which are more resource-efficient than petrochemical plastics, but have higher human and ecotoxicity values. This increase is due to eutrophication as well as the water and land requirements in agriculture required for the cultivation of maize. S3 and S4 compare the disposal by thermal recovery and composting from PLA.

It can be shown that composting has advantages in terms of resource consumption. But the thermal recovery performs better in terms of human toxicity and ecotoxicity, which is also a consequence of energy substitution in thermal recovery. Scenario S5 considers PLA production from Brazilian sugar cane instead of German sugar beet. The additional 10,000 km of shipping increases human- and ecotoxicity, but saves resources compared to petrochemical plastics.

Another example compares “packaging film made of virgin material (vPE) with packaging film made of recycled material (rPE)”. The film is intended for industrial applications such as mattress packaging. The respective scenarios are shown in Figure 7.

The reference film (S1) has a thickness of 100 μm. Since the mechanical properties usually decrease when recycled material is used, the thickness of the rPE film is increased to 150 μm (S3), but an rPE film with a thickness of 100 μm (S2) is also considered for better comparability. Since the PE film only consists of one monolayer, it is recyclable.

Figure 7 shows that the use of recyclate (S2) has a positive effect on the conservation of resources and human toxicity, although it has a higher ecotoxicity than S1. On the one hand, the higher ecotoxicity can be explained by water and energy consumption during the recycling step (S2). On the other hand, thermal recovery (S1) leads to a higher energy credit, which reduces the ecotoxicity in S1.

Scenario S3 shows that the advantage of using recycled material in the human toxicity category is quickly exhausted with increasing film thickness. Scenario S4 also looks at mechanical recycling of virgin material in China, in which transport of the material by ship over a distance of 12,000 km is included in the calculation. This leads to significantly worse results than with mechanical recycling in Germany (S1).

The comparison with paper is also interesting. Compared to the use of plastic in the form of virgin material, the use of paper can conserve fossil resources, but significantly increases human toxicity and ecotoxicity on the basis of the SimaPro database.

The sustainability of a product is generally assessed by LCA based on the CO2 footprint. However, this is not sufficient for a complete ecological assessment, so that a calculation concept with three-dimensional impact assessment was created and used. The developed calculation concept showed that the use of recycled materials is a good approach to increase the sustainability of the product, but only if the material use is the same.

In contrast to petrochemical plastics, bio-based plastics contribute to the conservation of resources even considering long transport routes, but they increase human and ecotoxicity.

Composting of PLA does not make much sense because the energy contained in the plastic is not recovered. In addition, it can be shown that a substitution of plastic by paper is not a good alternative with regard to lower values in human and ecotoxicity.

The balance sheets drawn up for three categories create a basis for comprehensive analysis, but do not allow a direct recommendation for action, because guidelines for prioritizing the categories would be necessary. Furthermore, the database must be improved, e. g. in order to take more detailed account of the work involved in the mechanical recycling process.

[1] Falck, M.: Die dunkle Seite des Zuckers. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 01. April 2015

[2] Grefenstein, A.: Flexible Verpackungslaminate – Ressourceneffizienz und Recyclierbarkeit. VDI-Jahrestagung Extrusionstechnik, Köln, 22. Juni 2017

[3] Klöpffner, W.; Grahl, B.: Ökobilanz (LCA) – Ein Leitfaden für Ausbildung und Beruf. Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 2009

[4] Rogall, H.: Nachhaltige Ökonomie. In: Volkswirtschaftslehre für Sozialwissenschaftler, Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden, 2013

[5] Grunwald, A.; Kopfmüller, J.: Nachhaltigkeit. Eine Einführung. 2. Auflage, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt, 2012

[6] Ellen MacArthur Foundation: The New Plastics Economy – Rethinking the future of plastics. Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016

[7] N.N.: DIN EN ISO 14040 – Umweltmanagement – Ökobilanz – Grundsätze und Rahmenbedingungen. Deutsche Norm, 2006

[8] N.N.: DIN EN ISO 14044 – Umweltmanagement – Ökobilanz – Anforderungen und Anleitungen. 2006

[9] Siracusa, V.; Ingrao, C.; Giudice, A.: Environmental assessment of a multilayer polymer bag for food packaging and preservation. An LCA approach. Elsevier Ltd. 2014

[10] Vidal, R.; Martinez, P.; Mulet, E.: Environmental assessment of biodegradable multilayer film derived from carbohydrate polymers. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

[11] Detzel, A.; Kauertz, B.; Derreza-Greeven, C.: Untersuchung der Umweltwirkungen von Verpackungen aus biologisch abbaubaren Kunststoffen. Umweltbundesamt, Texte 52/2012, Dessau-Rosslau, Oktober 2012

[12] Detzel, A.; Wellenreuther, F.; Kunze, S.: Ökobilanz von Müllbeuteln. Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg, 2009

[13] Pfisterer, I.: Erstellung eines Konzepts zur Berechnung des Carbon Footprints von Kunststoffprodukten in der Extrusion. Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung, RWTH Aachen, Masterarbeit, 2019 – Betreuer: L. Kraus

[14] Endres, H.; Siebert-Raths, A.: Engineering Biopolymers. Carl Hanser Verlag München, 2011

[15] Goedkoop, M.; Huijbregts, M.; Heijungs, R.: ReCiPe 2008: a life cycle impact assessment method with comprised category indicators at the midpoint and endpoint level. Ruimte en Milieu, 2008

[16] Huijbregts, M.; Steinmann, Z.; Elshout, P.: ReCiPe 2016 – A harmonized life cycle impact assessment method at midpoint and endpoint level. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Niederlande, 2016

[17] Humbert, S.; Schryver, A; Bengoa, X.: IMPACT 2002+: User Guide. Version Q2.21, Quantis, 2012

[18] Goedkoop, M.; Spriensma, R.: The Eco-indicator 99 – A damage oriented method for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. PRé Consultants, Amersfoort, Niederlande, 2001

[19] Adensam, H.; Ganglberger, E.; Gupfinger, H.: Wieviel Umwelt braucht ein Produkt? Studie zur Nutzbarkeit von Ökobilanzen für Prozess- und Produktvergleiche. Österreichisches Ökologie Institut, Wien, Oktober 2000

[20] Elsner, P.; Eyerer, P; Hirth, T.: Kunststoffe – Eigenschaften und Anwendungen. 8. Auflage, Springer Verlag Heidelberg, 2012

If a film is used in the packaging sector, it should be made of at least a recycled material – leading to the common opinion that assumes that materials in circulation are automatically more sustainable. However, a detailed life cycle analysis, which considers all relevant energy and material flows on the basis of a generally valid calculation method, shows that it is not that simple

Fig. 1. Challenges in the production and use of plastics and demands of society

Fig. 2. Phases in the preparation of a life cycle assessment according to DIN EN ISO 14040/14044 [7]

Fig. 3. Allocation of responsibilities for the use of recyclate and the manufacture of recyclable products with a 50:50 allocation

Fig. 4. Life cycle and considered process and transport steps for creating an LCA with SimaPro based on Reifenhäuser data sources

Fig. 5. Impact assessment method according to ReCiPe 2016 [16] 

Fig. 6. Balance sheet for fruit and vegetable bags for use in the supermarket from fossil and bio-based plastic

Fig. 7. Balance sheet for a packaging film for inferior applications from virgin material and recyclate

kk_SPEC_IKV_LCA - Hauptartikel

Lars Kraus, M.Sc., is Team Leader “Process Engineering Extrusion” at the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University; lars.kraus@ikv.rwth-aachen.de

Dr.-Ing. Tim Pohl is Director Business Development & Sustainability at Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co. KG Maschinenfabrik, Troisdorf, Germany

Ilka Pfisterer, M.Sc., wrote her thesis [13] at Reifenhäuser and IKV.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann holds the Chair for Plastics Processing and is Head of IKV.

Martin Facklam, M.Sc., is Head of Extrusion and Rubber Technology at IKV.

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Flachfolienanlagen

Blasfolienextrusion

Flachfolien- und Plattenextrusion

Nachhaltigkeit

Folien

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Folienblasanlagen

Kreislaufwirtschaft

There is little doubt where we are heading: multilayer packaging will have to become easier to recycle –  but what does that mean for the technology? And what solutions will the market need and accept? Manufacturers of branded goods are not the only ones who will have to rethink their specifications.

There is little doubt where we are heading: multilayer packaging will have to become easier to recycle – but what does that mean for the technology? And what solutions will the market need and accept? Manufacturers of branded goods are not the only ones who will have to rethink their specifications.

On taking up his position in summer 2019, Alexander Baumgartner, as the newly appointed Chairman of Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE) announced that, “in such a turbulent time for the packaging industry” he wants to energetically pursue the key issues of recyclability, resource efficiency and sustainability. Constantia Flexibles, the company he heads attracted attention a little later by starting production of a monomaterial film, especially since the plant is not localized in supposedly so progressive Europe, but in India. There is plenty of material, then, to discuss the changes in the requirements for plastic packaging material.

Kunststoffe: Mr. Baumgartner, you are not only CEO of a large manufacturer of flexible packaging, but since mid-year, you have been Chairman of the Flexible Packaging Europe association. Which materials does this involve?

Mag. Alexander Baumgartner: The association consists of the companies manufacturing flexible packaging for industries and manufacturers of branded goods. In about 80 percent of cases, we are talking about plastics. Individual companies also additionally offer paper or aluminum packaging, like my company, Constantia Flexibles. But a lot of the materials that used to have an aluminum component can now be packaged entirely in plastics.

Kunststoffe: Is this development turning around because plastics have become the subject of criticism?

Baumgartner: The media debate on this matter is partially not very rational. As an industry, we want to produce something that can be reused in a circular economy. That is all the easier to achieve the purer the material is. In the case of plastics, that basically means monomaterials. Everything that is based on multi-layer materials faces difficulties nowadays.

Kunststoffe: What does monomaterial mean in practice? We are not talking about 100 percent of a single polymer.

Baumgartner: The limit for other substances is about five percent. There are two fundamentals for this: on one hand, legal regulations, on the other, technical requirements for recycling, i. e. how many contaminants we can manage when sorting and separating the material streams.

Kunststoffe: For years, the trend was towards even more layers, and combinations of different polymers. Now, we face the challenge of achieving similar properties with monomaterials.

Baumgartner: Absolutely. As an industry, we are all very proud of a dozen extremely thin film layers, which bond to one another, thereby providing a flexible packaging with perfect barrier properties against UV, oxygen, water vapor, et cetera, et cetera. That is an amazing feat of engineering. I have to grant that. But today, we have to consider as an industry whether such packaging is still state of the art, if it is only intended for single use and then has to be thermally recycled. The multilayer structure is not a problem, but as a whole, you have to restrict yourself to one family of polymers in order to obtain recycable packaging.

Kunststoffe: Can your company already offer your customers packaging solutions that meet all the requirements in this respect?