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.

16:9

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

kunststoffe.de

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Polyethylenterephthalat

Thermoplaste

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Additive

Compensating for Darkening in Recycled PET

The quality of recyclates is seen as too low. Improvements are possible by using additives, as was shown by the exchanges during the Forum Plastic Recyclates.

Quite clearly, the central theme of this year’s conference  was additives for recycling materials.

Streifinger, Florian

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Additives Are Decisive

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.

Verpackungsmittel aus Kunststoffen

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Verpackungstechnik

International Award for Sustainable Sprayer Design

Focus on recyclability: at Interpack 2023, Interseroh+ presents its range of services-

Messe Interpack

Packaging Analysis for Global Target Markets

BASF, Krones, Südpack and Tomra have collaborated to make PET-based multilayer packaging separable and recyclable.

Collaboration project gives proof of concept for closed recycling loop for PET-based multi-layer packaging.

Technik Trend

Folien

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Multi-Layer Packaging Can Be Separated

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

Rohre, allgemein

Resilient through Changing Markets

The use of TPE materials with recycled content increases the sustainability of vehicles. They are also used more and more in the interior.

The selection of high-quality recyclate enables their use in demanding automotive applications.  

Recyclate Reduce the CO2 Footprint in Seals and Interior Applications

Thermoplastische Elastomere

Soft, Elastic and Recycled

Automakers have formulated ambitious plans for their vehicles. We discussed this topic with Frank Schumann from Trinseo.

Batterien

Energiespeicherung

Elektromobilität

Mobilität

Lichttechnik

“Nothing Speaks against the Use of Recyclates for Demanding Components”

The quality of recyclates can be improved very well by means of suitable additives. An overview of the variety of products and their suppliers.

Overview: Additives for Plastic Recyclates

Stabilisatoren

Vitamins for the Circular Economy

Plastic recycling: Kreyenborg uses infrared technology for the reduction of unpleasant odors in plastics.

Everything fresh: the two-stage IR-Fresh process removes unpleasant odors from recyclates.

Infrarotstrahler

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Materialhandling

IR-Fresh Minimizes Odors in PCR Granulates

To close the recycling loop for end-f-life tires, Pyrum will in future produce pyrolysis oil from discarded tires using its own pyrolysis process. BASF will then feed this into its Verbund at the start of production.

End-of-life tires are tires that are no longer suitable or approved for their intended use.

Vom Altreifen zum Türgriff: Pyrum, BASF und Mercedes-Benz schließen Wertstoffkreislauf.

New Life for Old Tires

As of August 16, 2022, Guenther Klammer is responsible for the research and technical developments of Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH as the new technical manager (CTO).

Guenther Klammer, new CTO at Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH.

Guenther Klamm New CTO of NGR

The two companies want to contribute their respective know-how to the value chain in order to return plastic waste that is not recycled mechanically.

Left: Christoph Gahn, Vice President Chemical Recycling Business & Technologies BASF; right: Marco Tomasi Morgano, CTO Arcus

Chemie

Naturwissenschaften

Unternehmen

BASF and Arcus Sign Agreement

The Ereman Group’s subsidiaries will be presenting their innovations and customer services for the first time at a combined stand in Düsseldorf.

The new 406 laser filter with 50 % more screen area.

Continuous High-Performance Filter with 50 % More Screen Surface Area

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 04/2023

issue 03/2023

issue 02/2023

About the journal

About the Journal

Contact

Media Data

Subscriptions

Subscription Offers

Subscription Cancellation

My Login

Imprint

Terms & Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Privacy Policy

News

Mobility

Packaging

Medical

Electrical/Electronics

Plastics Recycling

Lightweight Construction

Applications

Standard Thermoplastics

Engineering Plastics

High-Performance Plastics

Elastomers

Thermosets

Additives/Masterbatches

Bioplastics

Composites

Materials

Injection Molding

Extrusion

Additive Manufacturing

Further Processing Methods

Compounding

Composite Processing

Peripheral Equipment

Simulation

Processing

Research & Development

Dissertations

Patents

Journal of Plastics Technology

HANSER

Career at HANSER

Publisher

Kunststoffe

FORM+Werkzeug

HANSER automotive

QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit

WB Werkstatt + Betrieb

More Technical Portals

Publisher/Career

E-Paper

Subscription

Newsletter

Deutsch

Service Menu

linkedin

Products

Partners & Associations

Organ

Business Directory

Online Archive

Multi-User License

FACHARTIKEL_2023, FACHARTIKEL_2022, FACHARTIKEL_2021, FACHARTIKEL_2020, FACHARTIKEL_2019, FACHARTIKEL_2018, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2023, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2022, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2021, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2020, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2019

You want to read more? To continue reading this content please log in or register for the Hanser Customer Center.

Please log in

Choose Single Copy

Choose E-Paper

To Online Achives

You want to read more? Please choose your favourite from the following offers!

Settings

You want to read a Plus Article? No problem - you can purchase these articles separately (including PDF download).

KUint_Einzelartikel-Download-600x399px

Shopkunden

Kunststoffe international Single Article

Hanser

7% Digital mit Auslandssteuer

Try the digital subscription of Kunststoffe international 4 weeks free of charge!
The digital subscription includes:
<ul>
<li>E-Paper: The digital edition of Kunststoffe international</li>
<li>Kunststoffe-international.com and kunststoffe.de: Unlimited access to all contents</li>
<li>Online archive: Exclusive access to articles from back issues</li>
</ul>
If you want to continue the Kunststoffe international digital subscription after the free trial period, you don't need to do anything else. The annual digital subscription at the <a href="https://www.hanser-kundencenter.de/en/hanser/productfinder/Kunststoffe-international-Digital-Annual-Subscription" target="_blank">subscription price</a> valid at this time will start automatically. If you do not wish to continue reading after the trial period, please write to <a href="mailto:kundencenter@hanser.de" target="_blank">kundencenter@hanser.de</a> at the latest one week prior to the end of the trial period.

KUint_Digital_Abo_Gratis_1280x851

Kunststoffe international Digital Trial Subscription

9 E-Paper editions
Access to the current E-Paper edition will be provided immediately after submitting your order.
<ul>
<li>Digital: E-Paper are optimized for tablets, smartphones and browsers.</li>
<li>Comfortable: As soon as a new edition is available, you will receive an alert.</li>
<li>Minimum term: 12 months</li>
<li>Callable until at least six weeks prior to the end of the minimum term.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.kunststoffe.de/en/epaper" target="_blank">&gt;&nbsp;Detailed information on the E-Paper </a>
<a href="https://epaper.kunststoffe.de/en?autologin=true" target="_blank">&gt; Take a look at the current E-Paper issue</a>