Yazar Arşivleri: GP-TECH

The year 2022 will be a year in which many innovations and developments will take place in the recycling industry. The most important reason for this is the latest developments and innovations in recycling technology.

According to a report in the New York Times, the Corona pandemic caused a major waste crisis. Fear of transmission of the disease has caused many recyclable materials to be thrown away. When we look at the result, we are faced with more waste and less recycling. Therefore, recycling technologies are the only thing that can provide a solution to this period of history where perhaps the most waste is in question.

Some of the latest developments and innovations in recycling technologies will be implemented immediately, and some will be implemented soon. The aim of these innovations is to make recycling more efficient and effective, and there are high hopes for them to find a solution to the waste issue that has turned into a crisis. 

1. Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse

Announced in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse focuses entirely on recycling and waste management. Significant impacts are expected in these areas with Metaverse. Metaverse reduces the need to travel and of being physically in one place.

Thanks to Metaverse, which is described as a new era in the virtual world, more people will work from home. With the necessary equipment and training, people will be able to spare time for recycling, reach the necessary resources and have the ability to realize them.

2. Plastic That Can Be Recycled

Work on recyclable plastic has been going on for years. These studies are carried out entirely with the help of cutting-edge science. Numerous experiments are being carried out to transform plastic in a sustainable way. After countless experiments, one person managed to find the way to this sustainable plastic recycling: John Layman.

With the PureCycle Technology he developed, Layman from Procter and Gamble succeeded in obtaining a reusable resin by completely purifying polypropylene from color, odor and contaminants.

The first product of this technology was a recycled plastic shower head.

3. The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is widely used in Europe. The purpose of IoT technology is to collect recycling route data. For this, sensors are installed in residential garbage bins and other garbage units. These sensors are connected with the right front-end software and data is collected where, how much, at what level and by whom recycling is done.

When considered in terms of society, with the system created by this technology, municipalities can identify residential and commercial areas that cannot reach the expected recycling rates. Thus, recycling improvement works can be carried out on the basis of cities.

4. City Recycling Programs

The ongoing, and not expected to end, pandemic conditions and the China ban have forced cities to adapt and innovate their recycling programs.

Municipalities created new resources that could finance their recycling activities, and thus taking action to realize sustainable recycling activities became common.These alternative financing sources of municipalities were created through online platforms and social media. Still, in 2022, municipalities should communicate directly with the community to provide more sustainable finance and to explain the requirements of recycling.

Recycling is not only a concrete step towards climate change, but also one of the drivers of global economic development.

The American Environmental Protection Agency EPA began to create programs that promote recycling and the use of recycled materials in 1990. Among these programs, programs that promote employment in the field of recycling were in the nature of financing recycling economic development grant programs. Thanks to these programs, a network of professionals from the recycling market was formed.

While the impact of programs like “Jobs Through Recycling” JTR on recycling job positions in America has been positive, government support has waned over time. The decrease in this support also negatively affected the financing. While the federal-level practices accelerated the purchase of recycled materials for the state, the private sector could not catch the same momentum. As political perspectives on recycling have changed, the corollary has been changes in funding. Although it could not progress in a stable line, these first steps taken to create the recycling market and employment contributed greatly to the establishment of the system in the country.

Increased Production

For a century, production in the world has been taking place on the axis of economic overseas shipping, taking advantage of cheap employment in overseas countries. As recycling came to the fore in time, the recyclable materials of Europe and America started to offer a commercial earning potential. Afterwards, it came to such a point that the demand for recycled material began to exceed the amount of material offered. This has led to the export of low quality recyclable materials to meet the increasing demand.

As a result, American recycling companies were late in making innovations in the field of recycling and keeping up with the developing recycling technologies, as they concentrated only on meeting the increasing demand.

Quality Issue

America’s shipment of contaminated bales to overseas processors has caused some problems over time. These overseas processors were unable to clean up this level of contamination and so the pollution in their country was increasing day by day. One of these countries was China. With the formation of this pollution, the government immediately implemented the policies called Green Fence and National Sword and started to prevent pollution.

Michael Timpane, RRS Vice President of Materials Recovery, said: “It was so untenable to regulators.” says. “What those in the supply chain overlooked were the high costs of cleaning up contamination and the illegal release of pollutants into the environment.

When the Chinese Government put the restrictions into effect, the materials that came to China for recycling started to be received, this time by countries such as Vietnam and India. However, the result was the same. These countries also saw the problems caused by these high-contamination materials and took similar restraint measures.

In the later stage, companies in these countries started to work domestically by establishing their own MRF infrastructures, while at the same time they began to purchase assets to produce raw products or semi-finished products in the USA. These products, which they would produce in America, would be sent to their overseas facilities.

Situation in U.S.

The measures taken and the restrictions imposed by overseas countries, especially China, caused problems in the domestic market in the USA. A sufficient level of recycling exports could not be made. This had negative environmental effects. As a result, it has become a necessity for America to turn to the development of the domestic recycling market. Improvements in the domestic recycling market have made the system more responsible and flexible. In addition, companies in the private sector now had targets regarding the use of recycled content. The way they could achieve these goals was through the development of the domestic recycling market.

Decision makers, policy makers and government agencies agree on the benefits of the recycling market as an important development tool. These benefits are people, profitability and planet. Considering the current legal situation, there is almost no obstacle in front of the development in the recycling market. Because the technologies used in recycling are developing day by day and the demand for recycled materials is increasing constantly, either compulsorily or voluntarily.

There are recycling market development centers in America, and most are either government-established or government-funded. The aim of these organizations is to support the companies that demand recycled materials, to gather the necessary resources at one point, to provide the necessary coordination, to provide the necessary expertise and tools for the companies to cope with the obstacles they face, and to contribute to the development of this market by obtaining positive economic, social and environmental outputs as a result of all these. 

Since the 1990s, states that have a recycling market development program have been reintroduced and resource support has been provided, and necessary steps have been taken to establish new centers in states such as New York, Washington, and New Jersey.

Market

According to the 2010-2019 data of the Post-Consumption Plastics Recycling Data Report, exports of recovered post-consumer plastics in the United States decreased from 40% to 10%. It is possible to say that the effect of the pandemic on the worldwide supply has a share in this, albeit partially.

The Covid epidemic has also enabled the worldwide e-commerce volume to grow exponentially. As this directly affects the packaging industry, American paper mills are expanding to meet the increasing demand. Dan Felton, managing director of AMERIPEN St. Paul, Minnesota made the following statement about this situation. ” The recycling and manufacturing industries should see each other as partners in the production of products containing recycled materials. There should be a concerted effort to improve bale quality and create end markets for materials.”

The idea that recycling is only an application that prevents materials from going to waste should be left behind. It is one of the most concrete solution actions taken against climate change. It represents economic development, increases employment and encourages local investment. For all companies and individuals operating in the recycling market, now is the perfect time to start growing, increase cooperation and ultimately transform it into a circular economy.

PureCycle has been developing new innovations in the recycling of polypropylene, the second most used plastic in the world. This type of plastic is the type of plastic that has been recycled at least to date.

Considering that only less than 10% of what is used is recycled, the plastic waste problem becomes serious. The amount of plastic waste in the oceans alone is 100 million tons. However, plastic waste can be a completely renewable resource. The issue that scientists are investigating is: can plastics be used over and over in an endless cycle without becoming waste? So what are the ways to ensure this cycle? Through the discovery of these pathways, the linear economy can become the circular economy.

Recycling of Polypropylene

John Layman has made an important progress towards achieving this. He is the head of materials science at Procter§Gamble and the founder and chief technology officer of PureCycle Technologies. The aim of the process developed by Layman is to purify polypropylene plastic waste from color, contaminants and odor and convert it into a resin in this way. To this resin will become a virtually unused resin. What makes this technology most special is that although polypropylene is the second most used plastic type in the world, it is only 1% recycled plastic.

Some plastic additives have been added to these innovative materials from PureCycle by Scott Trenor. Scott Trenor is Layman’s former classmate and polymer scientist for Milliken & Company. These additives are so interesting that they change the properties of plastics so that they can be used for different products. Because a cheese pot should be flexible whereas a water drum should be durable. This innovation brought the two companies together to start a commercial production.

According to Trenor, this union has a fruitful harmony as it is built around the same environmental goal. In fact, Milliken’s policies in this direction began in 1901. The target of all circular economy policies, including zero waste, is 2025. This innovation developed by Layman coincides with P§G’s 100% recyclable material plan for all its packaging.

Layman’s interest in recycling started in 2008 with a stint at P§G. The purpose of this task was to investigate whether plastic waste can be used with P§G packaging. “The quality of the recycled materials is questionable,” he says. Currently, PET and HDPE are the most economically viable types for both recyclers and those using recycled plastics. However, it is challenging to obtain quality products from even these two.

Layman decided on polypropylene because it was the third most used plastic resin. The most distinctive features of this plastic are that it is resistant to impact and has a flexible structure. It is mostly used in covers, phones, luggage. You can see this plastic used everywhere. However, it requires a lot of processing in terms of recycling, so it is costly to recycle. Moreover, due to its intense odor and non-purified pollutants, only black or gray products are recycled as output. Therefore, its recycling rate is very low and its usage area is very limited.

Layman was aware that the way to expand the usage area of ​​this type of plastic after recycling and thus to increase its commercial value was through an economical treatment process. Thanks to a funding program of the firm, it first started with the discovery phase. Since the technology in question is a solvent-based process that does not work on a molecular basis, it is energy efficient compared to chemical processes. According to Layman, this quality of purification is achieved not only by using the right solvent, but also by following certain processes.

Global PureCycle Goals

After purification, it is necessary to obtain recycled polypropylene with certain properties for a particular product. At this stage, additives are processed. These additives can differentiate PureCycle resin according to the purpose of use. In this way, polypropylene resin can be used for the production of a much different and wide range of products. The planned polypropylene purification and recycling target for the first plant is 119 million pounds and an annual production target of 105 million pounds. Even though the numbers seem big, when we look at the data of 2018, there is the fact that 120 billion pounds of polypropylene is produced in the world. This means that, as Layman said, these goals are not that big. The larger plan is to build 25 more facilities around the world. Layman states that they aim to transform 10-20% of the polypropylene produced by these facilities with this technology.

PureCycle is A Long Term Marathon 

According to Trenor, considering the technologies used for this recycling, it is a marathon run. In this marathon run, technology alone is not enough to create the plastic cycle. Consumer behavior should be differentiated, recycling should be assisted, and recycling companies should be provided with an economic basis to recycle polypropylene along with PET and HDPE.

The recycling process of plastic is like a spiral of waste and degraded materials. But now a different recycling is possible: turning plastic into the oil from which it is made.

Did you know that only 9% of the total plastic produced in the world is recycled? This is indeed a very low rate. The biggest reason why this rate is so low is that recycling of plastic requires advanced technology and long and difficult processes. Plastic is produced with polymer chemistry, and what we are talking about now is that this polymer chemistry turns the plastic back into oil.

The name given to this process is chemical recycling, and it is currently being researched as an alternative to existing recycling practices. Normal recycling processes and technologies are difficult, but chemical recycling also requires a great deal of energy. When the ever-changing prices of crude oil are added to this huge energy need, producing plastic from scratch unfortunately costs less than recycling. 

The annual amount of plastic production in the world is more than 380 million tons. Only 16% of this amount of plastic produced is recycled and new plastic is produced. The remaining plastics are either incinerated or thrown away.

Definition

In fact, chemical recycling is the process of recycling plastics that are not recyclable due to some of their properties and are not suitable for recycling. In other words, there is no plastic that is not recycled in chemical recycling and all of them are converted to their original state. This creates an endless transformation system.

Raw material recycling forms the basis of chemical recycling. Its other name is thermal transformation and polymers are broken down into simple molecules with the help of heat.

Chemical Recycling Process

We can explain this simple process as follows. After a plastic bottle is used and thrown away, it is collected and taken to the recycling facility. At the facility, garbage is separated manually or mechanically according to its types. After this bottle is cleaned and shredded, it is packed together with the others in the form of a bale. All the processes up to this point are the same as the normal recycling process. Chemical recycling begins after this point. The plastic of the bottle is taken to the pyrolysis center and melted and subjected to a lot of heat in the pyrolysis reactor. This allows the plastic to turn into gas. The plastic that turns into gas is cooled to condense enough to turn into oil. The resulting oil is distilled to be used in different fields.

Applications

Some techniques for chemical recycling are still in the testing phase. One of these techniques is currently being tested by UK-based Recycling Technologies. The firm developed a machine. This is a pyrolysis machine that turns film, sachets and laminated plastics into Plaxx. The purpose of this output, which is a kind of liquid hydrocarbon feedstock, is to make quality plastics. For this purpose, the company established its first unit in 2020.

On the other hand, Plastic Energy company continues to work on the same chemical recycling process. It aims to add facilities to its two facilities in Spain, which it will establish in France, the Netherlands and England.

The plastics that the company recycles are plastics that are difficult to recycle. They recycle plastics like dry pet food bags into plastics that can be used in food.

Alpla invests 60 million dollars to establish a PET recycling plant in Coca-Cola FEMSA Mexico. The facility will be able to process 50,000 tons of post-consumption PET bottles annually.

The facility is a joint venture of Alpla, which provides sustainable packaging solutions and produces bottle-to-bottle recycling on a global basis, and Coca-Cola FEMSA, based in Mexico-City. In this context, the company’s plan is to build a recycling plant in Cunduacán, Tabasco, Mexico. Coca-Cola FEMSA is the bottler of Coca-Cola products operating in this region.

The Capacity of The New Recycling Plant PLANETA

The recycling facility, where an investment of 60 million dollars will be made, is called PLANETA, or Planta Nueva Ecología de Tabasco. Alpla officials said about the facility: ” The annual PET, ie polyethylene terephthalate bottle processing capacity of the facility is planned and expected to be around 35,000 tons of recycled PET output after processing 50,000 tons of PET annually.

The facility will contribute to the increase of employment in the region.

Alpla officials state that this new recycling facility, PLANETA, is planned to provide direct and indirect employment of 20,000 people in total in southeastern Mexico, both during the construction process and once operational. In this respect, it is emphasized that the initiative will be a strong employment incentive for the region. It was also announced that a total of 18 collection centers in the surrounding area and throughout Mexico will be integrated into the facility to supply the facility.

According to the statements made by Philipp Lehner, CEO of Alpla company, regarding the new recycling plant project, the biggest challenge in front of the recycling industry is the management of the stages of collecting, processing and reintroducing plastics after consumption. ” What we do is to create systems that will increase the added value of plastic packaging. Only in this way can we ensure that they are recycled. It is very important for us to establish strong partnerships with strong brands and companies. Coca-Cola FEMSA is one of them. Because only in this way can we create recycling infrastructures in many different regions. “

Recycling Capacity Increasing Investments of Alpla 

Carlos Torres Ballesteros is Alpla’s managing director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. According to Ballesteros, Alpla will have a total of three recycling facilities in Mexico with this new recycling facility. According to the company’s 15-year investment plan implemented by 2021, it is making and will increase its recycling capacity of around 50 million Euros (approximately 56 million USD) every year.

Goals of Coca-Cola FEMSA for 2030

Coca-Cola FEMSA officials also made some statements about the PLANETA project, the new recycling facility in Mexico. According to them, the company already has some sustainability commitments, and in this context, this new project fully coincides with these commitments. Coca-Cola FEMSA is part of Coca-Cola Co.’s global waste-free world initiative. The company’s 2025 goal is to ensure that all its packaging is fully recyclable by this year. In addition, the company aims to use 50% recycled PET resin in the resin contents of its packaging by 2030.

Melt Indexer: One of the measures of melt flow is the molecular weight of the material. This measure determines the performance of the material in different areas of use. Upon customer request or if the recycling processor decides this, a capillary rheometer can be included in the quality control process to obtain more detailed information about the viscosity of the material.

 Moisture analyzer: The moisture of the recycled flakes should be measured as well as the starting pellet. Residual moisture can cause defects that can affect quality and performance in subsequent recycling stages. Said moisture comes from the water that the plastic comes into contact with in recycling. The purpose of washing and flotation with water is to determine the density of the plastic and to limit it accordingly, and to ensure that the pollutants in the plastic are removed with water. Recycled plastic may have problems with insufficient coloration, widening, strength, and poor performance if moisture testing is not performed or if the output has a high humidity level. 

 Near-infrared spectroscopy: The purpose of the measurement with this test is to measure the health of the finished product and a NIR unit is used for this. This is because recycled plastics go through many processes before they become output. This makes it important to control purity. It is an analysis that should generally be used for PP and PE. Because PP and PE are not completely separated. The measurement results of this recycled plastic material can be compared with resins of the required health, so that its content and purity can be learned.

 X-ray fluorescence: In this measurement, it detects brominated flame retardants and chlorine contents, which are prohibited for use in some manufacturing industries. Because even though they are recycled, plastics should not contain these substances. X-ray analysis is the only way to measure the presence of these substances. Therefore, recycling processors should know which of their customers will need this test and incorporate XRF analysis into their quality control process.

 Oven. While it may seem insignificant, customers often request this test be done because the ash content of recycled plastic can cause some problems. We can call this analysis baking. The polymer is taken into a furnace where it can be properly incinerated, and the residual ash content is measured after complete combustion. This is an analysis performed for each batch.

There are some differences between resins and recycled plastics. However, in terms of high quality, customers’ expectations are the same for both resins and recycled. For the end user, meeting these high quality standards and cleaning the feed stream can become a challenging technological process. At the end of the day, serious measurement and testing practices must be carried out in order to meet quality expectations and achieve a sustainable quality standard.

The expected performance from recycled material will vary depending on the area in which the material will be used. Sometimes the usage area requires very high performance values. This requires that the material always has the same high quality. In the past, when recycling was not an industry, recycled plastics were not subject to quality tests and were used in lower segment usage areas. Today, the situation is very different. The performance and quality standard of non-recycled, i.e., never used materials are now provided in recycled plastic, so these plastics can be used safely in the automobile, electronics and even food industries. Therefore, processors operating in the recycling industry have no choice but to high quality and performance.

Meeting Quality Expectations

No brand compromises on the quality and performance of its product. When we look at recycled plastic materials from this point of view, they are an important economic value with the quality they offer beyond their environmental responsibility practices. Buyers of this recycled plastic output wait for the quality offered to be tested. These tests measure the intrinsic viscosity, the presence of additives and chemicals, the presence of ash and other contaminants. The appearance of the output is also a quality determinant.

The use of recycled plastic is not only an economical raw material source for brands with goals in the axis of sustainability and circular economy, but also a starting point for the development of the new products. This means that there should be no difference between unused pure plastic raw material and recycled plastic in terms of quality and performance. Therefore, raw material producers and recycling processors should have the same testing and certification processes.

Quality Tests

Customers have an expectation of an unbiased evaluation of the recycled plastic output through testing and measurement across the axes of quality, volume, and performance. They make the purchasing decision only after that. This means setting up a dedicated laboratory environment in plastic recycling facilities to ensure quality. First of all, it is necessary to determine which tests and measurements prove that the output has quality standards that will meet expectations. This will be determined entirely by the feedback from the customers. In the next step, it should be determined which equipment is required for the establishment of this laboratory. Because quality test technologies differ according to the recycled material. As we mentioned before, the test technology will be very similar as the pure unused raw material and recycled plastic output in the market are expected to have almost the same quality performance values. Establishing this test and measurement laboratory in recycling facilities is a process and practice that should be given importance and attention.

This year’s Plastic Recycling Conference is held in Washington D.C. in collaboration with The Voice of Plastic Recycling, from March 7 to March 9, 2022. The conference is known for being the largest conference of its kind in North America. It brings plastic recycling experts together every year, and the industry’s more than 2000 professionals meet with those who are curious about the industry.

Vaccination card will be requested from event participants and mask and social distance rules will be applied at the event.

The Plastics Recycling Conference 2022 will discuss changes that are impacting the recycling market in a major way. Other factors will also be evaluated. During the conference, equipment suppliers, recycled resin customers, plastics processors and other industry members will have the chance to meet each other and form potential business partnerships. At the conference, the work of leading companies on the sustainability of plastic will be brought to the agenda. The conference will not only be a conference concept, but also a fairground where the brands of the industry will take place. Thus, the conference will not only bring up developments and solutions, but also offer the opportunity to acquire a strong business network in the industry.

Speakers

Among the finalized speakers of the conference are the following names: Anne Bedarf, Global Packaging Sustainability Manager, Colgate-Palmolive ,Pete Keller, Vice President Recycling and Sustainability, Republic Services, Greg Janson, General Manager of Resin and Recycling, Evergreen, Kaitlyn Trent, Plastics Campaigner , Greenpeace, David Biderman, Executive Director and CEO, SWANA, Sarah Dearman, Emily Friedman, Pierre Benabides, Emily Tipaldo Executive Director, US Plastics Pact, Joel Morales, Steve Alexander, Cherish Miller, Vice President of Sustainability and Public Affairs, Revolution, and Michael Hodges, Vice President of Public Affairs, Amcor. 

For nearly 15 years, the Plastics Recycling Conference continues to be the focal point of the North American recycling industry, bringing together relevant people and institutions around the latest developments.

Sponsors

Cumberland, Talco Plastics, Inc, Star Plastics, PureCycle, Britas Filtration Systems, Republic Services, Avangard Innovative, Polyvel Inc, Sorema Plastics Recycling Systems, Herbold USA, Cross Wrap, Gncub, Schenck Process, Pellenc St, and Caltex Polymers Inc are among the main sponsors of the Plastic Recycling Conference 2022.

The winners of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2021 were announced in November with a ceremony held in Amsterdam.

100% Recycled Eye-Catching Exterior Design.

All of the materials used for the Speed ​​Home WLAN designed by Deutsche Telekom AG are recycled. This product also attracted great attention and praise for setting an example with its eye-catching exterior design.

A New Opportunity: Recycling of Fishing Gear 

In the field of building and construction, Plastix has designed a circular green rope. What makes this circular green rope special in terms of recycling is that it is made of material obtained by recycling fishing gear, which is very difficult to recycle. The fact that it is a truly innovative recycled product was the highlight of the product at the award ceremony. It also offers a new business opportunity to the sector.

Recycled Living Spaces

Flokk, on the other hand, designed the HÅG Capisco Puls, one of the snowplow ploughs, in 2021. In this way, it won the first prize in the category of home and entertainment products. Flokk was recognized for its significant contribution to sustainable living spaces with this product. HÅG Capisco Puls is a post consumer polypropylene recycled desk and chair. It is described as the aesthetic design of recycling. Apart from that, it is an innovative home decoration product with different functions as furniture.

Bottle Without Label

One of the key elements of the circular economy is the recyclability of packaging. In the category of plastic packaging products, the Evian bottle designed and produced by SAEME for Danone Eaux France was awarded. This bottle has no label. In this way, the use of packaging is reduced and recycling becomes easier. The analysis score of the bottle is A+++.

Making Recycling Possible

Reckitt’s product that made it worthy of the award was the PP Trigger Sprayer. This single-material sprayer is normally made from multiple materials, along with metal and other materials. Therefore, they cannot be recycled or the recycling costs are high and the output quality is low.

Flor Peña Herron was chosen as the plastic recycling ambassador for 2021. Flor Peña Herron is the Sustainability & Circular Economy Manager at Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials. The jury thanked Herron, who assumed the leadership role with his work in the field of recycling in Europe.

The awards presented to the winners are three-dimensional and made entirely of recycled plastic materials.

The Plastics Recycling Show Europe is an event organized as a conference. It is free to attend and hosts recycling experts and industry leaders. Representatives of industry associations, plastic material suppliers and compounders, pre-processors, plastics recyclers, waste management specialists and plastics recycling machinery and equipment suppliers are brought together at the conference.

The Plastics Recycling Awards Europe is organized in partnership with Plastics Recyclers Europe and Crain Communications, the organizers of PRSE.

At the beginning of each year, there is a slowdown in plastic scrap production as prices increase. One of the most important reasons for this is the limited access to plastic scrap and the constantly increasing prices.

The leaders of the industry on the subject have different interpretations. It is said that the decrease in the demand for plastic scraps at the beginning of the new year, that is, in the winter months, is the natural cycle of plastic scrap. When this demand for PET is compared in summer and winter, demand differences of up to 50% can be seen. Industry representatives say that the same is true for HDPE demand, and they say that the most important reason for this is the school period in autumn, winter and spring. So we understand that the consumption of recycled HDPE is higher in summer when children are on vacation. Recycling industry members state that this reduction in production during the winter months is a normal routine for plastic recycling. However, since mid-January this year, there has been an increase in PET production demand, and officials say that they do not expect such an increase before March under normal conditions. In addition, this increase, which is out of season, has brought with it high price levels.

Demand Increase in January Surprising

In the light of these developments, the industry representatives expect that 2022 will be an active year in the plastic scrap market. This demand activity, which started in January, is mostly observed in PET plastic types. When we look at HDPE, there was no change in the price level. But there is still time. Because pipe and furniture manufacturers are starting to create demand as of March.

In response to these unexpected demand and price increases in January, an average of 30% capacity increases are realized in Europe as in North America, and even new recycling facilities are opened. Even though PET has a wider usage area, when we consider that it is used in the production of non-food packaging such as personal care and household cleaning products, HDPE recycling capacities are increased at the same rate.

According to the statements made by the officials of Apla, a European-based packaging manufacturer, the demand in Mexico and Central America is at a very high level. They offer most of the recycled plastics they produce in their facilities operating in Mexico to this regional market.

Although a higher price decrease is expected in HDPE bale prices than last year, they continue to be above the price levels before the last decreases.

An MRF operator states that LDPE film scrap is in high demand thanks to its sustainability practices. However, 2 years ago, the situation was very different. However, thanks to sustainability practices and technologies, the cleaning efficiency of this type of plastic has increased, resulting in high prices and significant demand.

Higher Prices More Collection

These developments show that the demand for recycled plastic, which increases every year, causes the prices of scrap plastic to increase. Thus, the amount of scrap increases in a healthy way. Because higher prices make more people collect scrap plastic.

After the recycled plastic is melted, it is passed through laser-cut discs. This is how the pelleting process begins and the discs are the most important elements of the process. A condition that prevents them from working properly will result in increased pressure and decreased efficiency. Even the disc may burst with increased pressure and foreign substances may mix with the product. As it can be understood from here, discs should be periodically and sensitively maintained. Worn discs not only impair the health of the end product, but also cause costly part replacements. Proper maintenance is essential for the extrusion line.

Filter Cleaning

The most common method used for filter cleaning is incineration. This burning process does not provide adequate filter cleaning and may permanently damage the laser filter screen. However, thanks to the latest maintenance technologies, downtime can be reduced and productivity can be increased significantly.

Periodic Screen Change

One of the most important problems experienced between laser filter change periods is the increase in machine pressure. This increased pressure causes the screen to burst and contaminate the finished product. Screen explosion, on the other hand, is costly. In order to prevent this, a screen change schedule should be determined. This calendar should include a regular and frequent change schedule. In this way, both the screen can be used for a longer time and there is no stoppage in the production line due to a malfunction. Calculations and experience show that frequent screen replacement costs are much more economical than the costs caused by frequent breakdowns.

Chang Blade Not Filter

Metal particles attached to the filter can seriously scratch the laser filter. The most important reason for this is that the blade that scrapes the contaminants is blunt. This blunt blade not only scrapes these metal particles, but also spins them on the filter surface, causing scratches. They must be replaced before they become blind. Because replacing laser filters costs more than blades. Studies show that weekly blade changes extend the life of laser filters.

 Burning Temperatures and Times are Important

A laser screen burning process at 400- 450 degrees for 3-4 hours is ideal for getting the best cleaning result. The oven should be brought to these degrees Celsius gradually, not suddenly. When the process is completed, the temperature of the oven should be reduced slowly in the same way and the oven should only be opened when it drops below 250 degrees. In this way, plastics do not catch fire. At the same time, bending and deterioration of the metal is prevented. Processing time may be longer for larger parts other than laser screens. Because the amount of waste plastic they contain is higher. It is important that the heat can circulate during the burning process, as in the ovens in the house where food is cooked. For this, a suitable space should be left between the parts subjected to the incineration process. In this way, the pollutant plastic removal process will be more successful.

According to the market researches, the financial volume of the recycling market has reached 45.5 billion USD. By 2026, it is predicted that this financial volume will grow with 7.5% CAGR and reach 65.3 billion USD.

There are many important reasons for this growth, which is reflected in the analysis results. Among them, the rise in demand for end-consumer products made from recycled plastic and the rise in government initiatives to encourage and even make recycling more essential are two of the most important growth drivers. The starting point that increases the positive effects of these two locomotives in the recycling industry is the increasing awareness of global warming. That’s why plastic manufacturers create new, different and ever-evolving recycling concepts. In this way, it is aimed to reduce greenhouse gas effects and increase environmental sustainability.

However, on the other hand, the world population, which is increasing with each passing day, increases the consumption of plastic. This causes a paradox. This means that unprocessed plastics are being used more and their collection and storage is becoming a growing challenge to market growth. It is urgently necessary to install solid waste collection and separation systems. Among the recycled plastic types, the demand for PET and HDPE is increasing. This presents an important opportunity for the market as the recycling costs of these plastic types are low.

Recycling companies that contribute financial figures to the recycling market analysis include Envision Plastics, Custom Polymers, Inc., Plastic Recycling Inc., UltrePET, LLC, KW Plastics, Inc., CarbonLITE Industries, and Kuusakoski Group Oy.

In practice, as of 2022, a significant growth is expected with the ongoing effect of the past Covid pandemic, as well as the increase in the demand for ready-to-eat and ready-to-serve products, and the increase in plastic consumption in the food and beverage packaging sector. The need for health care brought by the disease is another reason for growth in the recycling industry.

From a process point of view, the packaging industry should be taken into account in terms of being the industry that will ensure the growth of the recycling industry. Affordable prices, easy supply and mechanical pressing equipment supply and laser filtration technologies are considered as the locomotive titles that ensure the growth of the recycling sector.

PET, Polyethylene Terephthalate, as the material subject to recycling, is the type of plastic that will make the biggest contribution to the growth of the industry. Recycling of PET plastic is economical and has a high flexibility rate. This means that recycled PET plastic has a wide range of uses. It is widely used in the electronics, food, beverage and other packaging, textile, film and even automotive industries. Numbers and statistics prove this. PET accounts for 70% of post-consumer recycling.

Geographically, APAC will be in the leading position. The waste management perspective and practices of rapidly industrializing countries such as China, India and Japan will be decisive in the industry. Solid waste management laws enacted by governments and the increase in production in the automotive, textile and construction industries are another factor that has positive effects on the growth of the recycling market.

To summarize, the increase in environmental awareness, the increase in plastic waste management practices, the increase in plastic demand, and government incentives will be the drivers of this growth.

HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene. Although the most common usage area of HDPE is pipe production, it is also used in the packaging of cleaning agents. From this point of view, High Density Polyethylene is also a part of the daily routine of the end consumer.

Although its main name is High Density Polyethylene, HDPE has different sub-types according to its usage area. In terms of recycling, this means that different types will be subject to different recycling processes. While one of the recycling technologies provides high efficiency in recycling a certain type of HDPE, the same technology will not work as efficiently with a different HDPE subtype. We can even say this for the washing phase.

The same is true for extruders. Some recycling companies choose twin screw extruders during mixing and homogenization stages. However, there are companies that find single screw extruders more efficient.

The Recycling Prosesses of HDPE

Applications differ in terms of efficiency according to the type of HDPE and recycling stages. Melt filtration stages can be manual or automatic. However, there are some inadequacies in post-consumer HDPE recycling in manual application of slide plate type melt filter. Post-consumer HDPE is first washed. This is due to the relatively small size of the remaining contaminants from washing. Very fine filtration is required to purify the melt from such small contaminants.

Manual Screen Changers

Manual application, as the name suggests, requires manual intervention. The operator replaces the screen as contaminants cause clogging.

Most recycling companies prefer to use manual screen changers, relying on the high efficiency of the washing phase at the beginning. Because they have the idea that the percentage of contaminants in HDPE is low thanks to the efficiency of the washing step. However, automatic melt filtration may come to the fore in the future.

Contaminations rate, waste percentage and cost are topics that need to be carefully measured and calculated in detail. Measuring the pollution rate is a complex measurement. Given that it is not always possible to work with experts in this, the only measurement that can be made for a manual melt filter is to determine how often the mesh screen needs to be replaced.

Undoubtedly, the data obtained will be average. From a financial point of view, if screen replacement is needed in less than 20 minutes, automatic melt filtration should be used. The fact that the recycling company employs only one personnel for filter replacement ignores the benefits of technology, resulting in both resource wastage and inability to adequately benefit from the qualifications and potential of the relevant personnel. There is a more important problem than the manual system, which directly concerns the output quality and efficiency. Screen replacement by a human reduces efficiency. Because the human factor is a factor that increases the risk of error. Output pollutants may remain or the proportion of contaminants in the output may increase due to screen that is not changed in a timely and correct manner.

In addition to workforce employment, manual melt filtration has negative aspects in terms of cost, as well as technologically.

Mesh Screens

When we look at the general practice in the world, meshes are cleaned by burning and used again. However, this goes against the nature of the business. Because if we are talking about recycling, our recycling techniques and practices should not be harmful to the environment. In addition, we should not forget that the screens are made of woven metal wires. Metal wires are affected by heat, they undergo structural changes and loosen due to heat. The fact that metal wires are burned every time to get rid of the contaminants on them means that the filtration quality of the screens produced from these woven metal wires will decrease. Since the filtration quality will decrease a little more after each incineration cleaning, the amount of contaminant in the pellets with recycling output will increase. In other words, the output will not have a quality standard. The use of these low quality and non-standard pellets in film and pipe extrusion will be an important issue. Therefore, spare parts calculations are very important in manual filtration technology. It should not be theoretical, spare parts needs should be based on actual measurements. And most importantly, the reuse of mesh screens should not be included in the calculations.

The more realistic the calculations are, the more accurate results will be achieved and it will be easier to decide which technology is the right one.

There is no doubt that the need for mesh screens as spare parts in the manual screen changer melt filtration system is high. There are also costs for the operator as an employee, and at the end of the day, this system does not provide high efficiency and causes high costs. However, if we consider 20 minutes as the average replacement period, it can be difficult to procure a mesh screen of this quality on a regular basis. The contamination rate of HDPE or other types of plastics that are started to melt filtration may be so high that the screen may need to be changed every 5 minutes. In short, no matter how realistic the filtration cost calculations are, the actual cost will always be above the calculated average cost figure.

Rising and unbalanced costs, reduced productivity and poor quality. No matter what industry you operate in, this is not a good sign. This problem you are having with just your screen changer can be the main source of all this. In other words, while the melt is filtered, time, money and quality are also filtered.

There are two important aspects in melt filtering. The first of these is the type of material being processed. HDPE’s filtration is different from PET. The second important aspect is the expected filtration level. Therefore, melt filters must be adaptable to the type of plastic and filtration level. With the right filtration, it is really possible to get very high efficiency even at low pressures and extrusion temperatures with the right melt filters. The smaller the surface of the screen changer, the higher the temperature applied to the filter to facilitate the transition. Such plastic becomes more fluid and easier to pass through the filter.

Heat provides fluidity and ease of transition, but it structurally degrades the polymer. You can understand this from the color of HDPE at the end of the filtration. HDPE, which is white or transparent at the beginning of the filtration process, has a yellow color when the process is completed. A large-area melt filter will maintain the appropriate temperature and provide low operating pressure so that the HDPE taken into the recycling process does not deteriorate. The minimum pressure level required, whether manual or automatic, is 100 bar. When it comes to HDPE, we can never go below this pressure level. The way to protect the gear pump at these pressure levels is to install a protective screen changer with 400/500 micron filtration.

Extrusion Melt Pump

The purpose of the extrusion melt pump is to almost completely eliminate pressure variations, increase polymer efficiency and control the gauge with precision. Extrusion melt pump reduces die head inlet pressure fluctuations. It preserves the volume and integrity of the output. Thus, it provides high quality and more efficient output.

Laser Filtration Technologies for Recycling HDPE

Most of the recycling companies use automatic laser filtration technologies to recycle HDPE. While some of these companies use single extruders, others use twin-screw extruders. In other words, automatic laser filtration technologies are suitable for both extruders. This screen was formed into a filter using a laser. It is actually a steel disc, not a mesh. This disc was drilled with a laser. The holes drilled by the laser are not rectangular or square like woven metal mesh, they are round. This ensures the highest level of filtration quality.