Waste rubber recycling innovation leads to an award-winning solution for Poland-based materials producer ML Polyolefins
ML Polyolefins, alongside partners Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster Tool Valley, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology and Technische Universitat Chemnitz, has developed a method for the innovative use of waste rubber from car tyres.
During the PLASPOL trade fair in Poland, the consortium was presented with an award in the ‘Plastics Processing Technologies’ category after developing a technology for the secondary use of polypropylene film waste granulate and rubber from car tyres in large-scale products such as grass grids.
ML Polyolefins CEO Tomasz Mikulski praised the consistency of the company’s research and development team and its work finding new formulations of recyclates to manage ‘difficult-to-recycle’ waste, as in the case of this project, where regranulates of film and rubber from car tyres were used. “It is our industry’s response to the environmental challenges,” he said.
Throughout the global plastics and rubber industries, manufacturers believe materials should have as long a lifecycle as possible, as modelled by the European Union and its introduction of the European Green Deal and climate neutrality. International co-operation and education are considered key areas of activity in the achievement of these aims. Likewise, co-operation between science and business will likely become the basis for further development.
Professor Dariusz Sykutera, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, said: “The project involved the use of homogeneous tyre rubber powder with a grain size of less than 0.5mm as a filler for polypropylene regranulate. The prepared rPP-GTR composition was the input for the injection moulding process. The difficulty was that the compound contained a minimum of 50 per cent rubber filler. Thorough research into the technical parameters of the material allowed the injection mould to be made and adapted.”
The collaborative project was led by the Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster Tool Valley. The project was supervised by the Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, which also invited specialists from Professorship of Lightweight Structures/Polymer Technology in Chemnitz. ML Polyolefins implemented the technology as well as the use of the compound in the final product, the grass grid, which can be used in construction applications to reinforce grassy areas and car parks.