Despite gains plastics recycling has “room to grow”
In the second report looking at market trends in the plastics industry ahead of K 2016 in October, experts at Messe Dusseldorf share insight on the development of plastics recycling across Europe.
Despite recycling being high on the sustainability agenda of many companies within the plastics industry, with many projects in place, experts are repeatedly confirming that too little waste material is used instead of virgin material, yet both the collection systems and technical feasibility have both developed enormously.
According to PlasticsEurope, plastics consumption in the European industry amounts to 47.8 million tonnes, with 25.8 million tonnes being collected after use.
The association investigated the collection rates in the 28 EU states plus Norway and Switzerland and found that there is still strong variation in recycling rates, with some nine countries banning the landfilling of plastics altogether and others sending as much as 70 percent of waste to landfill.
Overall, of the total residual plastic collected in Europe, about two thirds are now reused, while 30.8 percent are landfilled. About half – 7.7 million tonnes – of the collected plastic is recycled and the rest used for energy generation.
Materials in the mix
With figures amounting to around 9.5 million tonnes of PP, 8 million tonnes of PE-LD and PE-LLD and 6 million tonnes of PE-HD and PE-MD, polyolefins are by quantity the plastics most used in Europe, collectively accounting for about half of overall consumption.
If these are pure-grade residues, they can be efficiently processed, with numerous recycling businesses devoted to polyolefin recycling.
However, the situation is more complicated when PE and PP are mixed, being very hard to separate because of their similar density, and NIR sorting processes are today state of the art. However, PE and PP can also be processed together into high-grade products.
PET established but with room for expansion
PET, most of which is used for the production of bottles, accounts for almost 7 percent of total plastics consumption per year in Europe or about 3.1 million tonnes.
The 30 countries of Europe achieve an average collection rate of 57 percent. In 2014, 1.75 million tonnes of post-consumer PET wastes were collected.
However, it is almost exclusively bottles that are collected, usually in dedicated collection schemes. Although it was originally the goal to return the collected bottle flakes to bottle production, the industry has sought and found customers in other areas.
For film/sheet manufacturers, post-consumer bottle flakes have become increasingly interesting, and in 2014 they used the biggest share – 34 per cent – of the collected residuals in their branch of industry. Almost 30 per cent of the flakes were used in blow moulding applications, 26 per cent in the fibre industry and the rest for packing straps and other products.
Elfriede Hell, Head of Recycling Technology at Austrian plant manufacturer Starlinger, said: “Production of the regranulate required in injection moulding applications for the production of new bottles for food or non-food contact is currently low because of the sharp drop in the price of virgin material.”
Unlike used bottles, post-consumer trays and films usually end up being incinerated for energy or even on landfills. “But things have recently been changing. We have a number of customers interested specifically in projects for recycling trays and films,” Hell added.
PVC recycling achieves high utilisation rates
The recycling of PVC, a material whose outstanding mechanical properties have made it indispensable – particularly in the building sector, where it has a 70 per cent share, but also in the packaging, furniture and medical technology segments – has developed very encouragingly in the last few years. The recycled PVC is put to use particularly in building applications, e.g. in new profiles and pipes, as well as in horticulture and agriculture.
Composites are often unsuitable for recycling
While post-consumer products made of pure polymers lend themselves well to reprocessing, the situation for composite products consisting of two or more raw materials is entirely different. Dr Michael Scriba, mtm-plastics Managing Director and member of Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) and of Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung [Federation for Secondary Resources and Disposal] (bvse), is calling for the recycling-friendly design of the packages that contribute a large proportion of post-consumer wastes.
Here it is particularly important to dispense with fillers like chalk in PE and PP packages as far as possible, avoid plastics-paper composites, use pigmentation in moderation and make sure that the density of all products is well clear of 1 g/cm³ so that separation on the basis of density is possible.
At the same time, efforts are being made in the industry to develop reutilisation strategies for mixed wastes. Trenntechnik Ulm GmbH is pursuing a very exciting approach here in developing a chemical separation process for PE/PA composite films and building a unique production plant with a capacity of 10 tonnes per day.
The Future is Green
It can be assumed that recycling rates will continue to rise in the years to come, as there is strong demand for recyclate for both environmental and economic reasons. Marine litter, i.e. the pollution of the seas with wastes, has internationally highlighted the irresponsible treatment of wastes, particularly in newly industrialised countries, and lent added strength to the demands of other consumers for the sustainable treatment of resources.
Anyone wishing to find out about new technical solutions in the field of recycling can do so at K 2016, the world’s No. 1 trade fair for the plastics and rubber industry, from 19 to 26 October in Düsseldorf.