Polyplastics, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics, has launched the DURACIRCLE initiative for recycling engineering plastics. The company claims that this effort applies to a wide variety of sustainable solutions that contribute toward achieving a 100% recycling rate for engineering plastics, without being confined to the existing business model of manufacturing and selling plastics. Polyplastics' goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Polyplastics
Phase one of the sustainability initiative consists of the opening of Polyplastics' new DURACIRCLE (TM) Re-compounding Service business which aims to offer high-quality mechanically recycled materials starting by March 2024. Mechanical recycling is a method to melt plastic waste with heat and process it back into pellets for reuse.
Polyplastics believes that DURACIRCLE Re-compounding Service is a departure from conventional recycling. Its aim is to perform horizontal recycling which is considered difficult with engineering plastics since these materials require high quality in subsequent uses. Horizontal recycling is a recycling method to recycle products into the same products, such as recovering plastic bottles and recycling them back into plastic bottles.
Pre-consumer materials with manufacturing histories that can be traced and pose no concerns of contamination from environmentally hazardous substances are anticipated for use as raw materials. Pre-consumer materials are raw materials such as hot runners and non-conforming products that arise in manufacturing processes before products reach consumers, also referred to as post-industrial recycling (PIR) materials.
In addition to expanding DURACIRCLE to markets outside Japan, Polyplastics plans to develop and offer recycling technologies for post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials which are even harder to reprocess. As environmental needs evolve, Polyplastics is aiming to develop future solutions for mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, and biogenic carbon cycles.