Electrical and electronics manufacturers want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their products and optimize waste management and recycling for them. This can be achieved, among other ways, by using more sustainable thermoplastics and quality-assured recyclates. A close cooperation between companies to establish material cycles and the recycling-friendly design of equipment are also important.

16:9

Driving Sustainability Trends in the Electrical and Electronics Industry with Polymers

Elektronik

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Technische Kunststoffe

Thermoplaste

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Polycarbonat

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Support for a Greener E&E World

The increasing demand for recyclates and the shortage of food-grade PET flakes pose challenges for batch quality and color consistency.

Repi offers various additives for recycling PET, which can be used, for example, to prevent the material from darkening.

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

kunststoffe.de

Polyethylenterephthalat

Additive

Compensating for Darkening in Recycled PET

A growing number of companies and industrial sectors would like to use recyclates for their products. However, the application is frequently still confronted with considerable difficulties. And the extension of recycling to other fields and sectors also poses new questions. An overview of the current status and associated technical solutions was provided in conference “Forum Plastic Recyclates” at the end of March.

Conference Minutes of “Forum Plastic Recyclates”

Streifinger, Florian

Start into a Second Life for Plastics

Faerch and Erema realize closed loop for PET food packaging.

Verpackungsmittel aus Kunststoffen

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Verpackungstechnik

Closed the Loop for PET Trays

Strategic partnership delivers best practice example of a closed recycling loop for PET-based multilayer.

Best practice example of a closed recycling loop for PET-based multilayer.

Kunststoffe

Photonik

Optik

Closed Recycling Loop for PET-Based Multilayer

Mohinani is bringing PET bottle-to-bottle recycling to West Africa and is buying two Starlinger plants for this purpose.

The recoSTAR PET iV+ recycling lines produce food-grade rPET that can be used up to 100% in PET preform production.

Bottle-to-Bottle-Recycling in Ghana

Berry Global and Werner & Mertz receive the WorldStar Packaging Award 2023.

The design of the head follows a mono-material approach, with over 97% of it produced in polypropylene.

International Award for Sustainable Sprayer Design

The HolyGrail 2.0 Initiative aims to improve the sorting of plastic waste. But the method also has certain drawbacks. Here, luminescent pigments provide an alternative.

Marker masterbatches enable different information to be embedded in plastics. This can be used to improve the recycling circle.

Improved Sorting of Plastic Waste with Luminescent Pigments

Messtechnik

Additiv-Batches

Luminous Markers instead of Holy Grail

ABS is a material for esthetically and mechanically demanding applications in the automotive industry, electronic housings, household appliances, and medical technology.

ABS is particularly in demand for electrical and household appliances.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene: Recycling Successes and Challenges

ABS / ASA-Kunststoffe

Right Combination of Mechanical  and Esthetic Properties

Consumption and manufacturing capacities are growing most in North America and China. In Europe, companies are working on specific paths.

PE films with monoaxial and biaxial orientation help to replace multi-material compounds for packaging.

Polyethylene (PE): Shaping New Trends in Power Generation and Packaging

Polyethylen

Rohre, Profile

Metall Werkstoffe

Kunststoff-Rohre

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Rohre, allgemein

Resilient through Changing Markets

The IKV is researching digital solutions for better description and classification of recyclates. The aim is to increase the actual recyclate use rates. Results will be presented at the IKV colloquium in September.

PlasticBOND: Schematic illustration of the platform design to be developed.

Digitale Transformation

Wirtschaft

Innovationen und neue Technologie

Research to Improve Recyclate Use

IKV develops recyclable packaging solutions with the help of plasma technologies and presents the current state of research at the IKV colloquium in September.

Oberflächenbeschichtung

Holz

Recyclable Barrier Systems for Sustainable Packaging

Time to take stock: in what condition and with what agenda is the industry presenting itself after two-and-a-half years of a difficult climate? We have conducted a survey: insights into the dominant themes of the age.

Preview of K 2022: Kunststoffe Questionnaire on the Situation in Injection Molding Machine Construction

Spritzgießen

Steuerungen (Hardware und Software)

Automatisierungstechnik

Doriat, Clemens, Dr.

Steuern, Regeln

Software

Nachhaltigkeit

Mess-, Steuer- und Regelgeräte

Qualitätssicherung

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Energieeffizienz

Spritzgießmaschinen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Harsh Realities

Interview with Korbinian Kiesl, President of Billion SAS

“In difficult economic times, recycling is a reason to invest”

Texas-based Encina Announces $1.1 billion investment in new manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania.

Encina announced to invest USD 1.1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility in Point Township, Pennsylvania

Encina Announces USD 1.1 Billion Investment

Statutory recyclate quotas and the specifications of brand-name producers are weighing heavily on the packaging branch these days and turning recyclate availability into a hot issue. Some polymers are simply not available in sufficient amounts. Experts at the 31st Dresden Packaging Conference provided insights into the current situations and explained why the situation could worsen in the future.

Public criticism of plastics targets packaging first and foremost. The pressure to produce more sustainable products is therefore especially high on packaging manufacturers. This is why the digitally organized 31st Dresden Packaging Conference (2nd and 3rd December 2021) hosted by the German Packaging Institute ,dvi, spotlighted sustainable packaging and the circular economy.

The lecture program focused mainly on recyclate availability. According to Dr. Joachim Christiani, CEO of the Cyclos-HTP certification institute, this is simply not given for practically all polymers in sufficient quantities. His lecture included an overview of the recycling status of each of the materials that are relevant for packaging. Accordingly, recycling capacities have to be radically expanded in almost all fields in order to conform to the terms of the recently amended German Packaging Act. However, the specifications of the market and brand-name producers, some of whom have set their own goals for the use of recyclates, would have a much stronger effect on the packaging branch.

Strong deficits are mainly the case, Christiani says, where flexible kinds of packaging are produced in great quantities. These include films, bags, or sacks. He states that the LDPE (low-density polyethylene) frequently used for them is a particular headache when it comes to recyclate quantities. Also difficult is the situation for trays and other packagings made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), except for the shining example of PET bottle recycling. The main reason for this is that such packagings have previously not been sufficiently designed to be recycled, for instance, in regard to the glues or labels used.

Due to the packaging law and producers’ requirements, quite a lot has been happening on the market, observes Christiani.

Recycling Companies Can also Support Design for Recycling

Until now, recycling companies were mainly investing in equipment for recyclates in great demand and for easily recyclable plastics. Meanwhile, more and more facilities are being constructed for hard-to-recycle materials, such as wastes from mixed polyolefins (MPO), for flexible polypropylene (PP), and for PE films. The recycling quotas, Christiani continued, have led to a partial decoupling of the price for compounded plastics. Until now, they followed the prices of new material and were usually somewhat lower. With the obligation to employ specific percentages of recycled materials, this is changing. It is especially the case of polymers that were being recycled in great quantities, he concluded.

To increase the available recyclate quantities all those involved have to get in motion, in Christiani’s opinion. This includes the packaging manufacturers, final consumers, sorters, and the recycling companies as well. The latter should retrofit their facilities to provide manufacturers more freedom to design for recycling.

The current scarcity of recycled polymers was also confirmed by Christian Schiller, CEO of Cirplus, an online marketplace for recyclates. For every ten suppliers active on the platform, eight are sold out up to three months in advance or even longer. “At the moment, you can sell just about any recyclate,” Schiller summarized. That also leads to clearly higher price increases on the market. This is most clearly the case for recycled PET (rPET). Since January 2021, prices have increased by 74 % on the average, he reports. The 66 % increase for rLDPE and 64 % for rPP turned out somewhat lower, but were still considerable.

Michael Düsener, in charge of purchasing at plant supplies manufacturer Compos, offered insight into the procurement practices for recyclates. In many of their packagings, such as bottles for liquid fertilizer and sacks for potting soil, the company employs up to 90 % recyclate content. Düsener also confirmed the difficult situation regarding availability. At the moment there are still sufficient supplies available at acceptable prices, but he also fears that the situation will continue to worsen. That is due, among other things, to increasing competition from other branches. “The market is just too small,” as he succinctly summarized. Mainly for LDPE and HDPE (high density PE), Düsener reckons with a difficult supply situation. On the other hand, PP availability can be expected to improve.

Düsener also expounded on the quality of available recyclates. Top quality is currently available for PP he says, and quite good for HDPE.

 But the LDPE situation is tough. Its processing requirements are very stiff, and the availability of the quality they require is limited. It comes mainly from special collections, he points out, and not from collected household waste. In the next year or two, however, he believes the quality of LDPE recyclates will improve at least to a sufficient degree.

Retail Groups Are Aggravating  the Situation

From chemical recycling, Düsener is not expecting any rapid progress. Its possibilities for food packaging in particular are quite promising. However, until now the systems have been, with very few exceptions, limited to laboratory-scale. Since most of the waste disposal and recycling industry has invested in mechanical recycling, he does not reckon with a rapid upscaling of capacities.

The situation in the recyclate market could also worsen, he surmises, because large retail groups are increasingly buying up disposal and recycling companies. They thereby secure the required quantity of raw materials for themselves. However, that means less recyclates available on the market. For companies that lack the necessary capital to own their own recycling companies, as Düsener points out, that could cause problems in the future.

Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut e.V. (dvi)  

https://www.verpackung.org

Ausgabenartikel

Recyclates of many polymer types are hard to get right now.

KU 2-22_Verpackungstage - Hauptartikel

Additional information about the Packaging Conference on the event’s website: www.verpackung.org/events/digitale-verpackungstage

issue 09/2022

issue 08/2022

issue 07/2022

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