Bottle-to-bottle recycling plant for PET bottles

Backflush screen changer and gear pump (photo: Kreyenborg)

 

There are exotic holiday destinations where tourists find themselves climbing over mountains of plastic rubbish on the beach before they get to the water. And when they go swimming they have to contend with empty PET bottles, scraps of film and plastic cups. The waste is often carried down river to the sea, which means that much of it originates within the country itself. On the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, the provincial government has now recognised how damaging such waste is to the economy, and as a result drastic countermeasures are to be taken. The same goes for China, although on an incomparably larger scale. The World Bank calculates that in what is now the world’s second largest economy, dealing with environmental damage resulting from waste but also from air and water pollution, accounts for around 5.8% of gross domestic product every year. That is why the Chinese government has decided to invest US $ 536 billion in improving the environment in the current five-year plan.

 

Backlog brings opportunities

The increased environmental awareness in China represents a great opportunity for manufacturers of plastics recycling machinery. “Plastics recycling is growing enormously in importance and significance, particularly in China. The global shortage of raw materials, constantly rising cost pressures and huge quantities of waste mean that the recycling market is expanding very rapidly,” says Jan-Udo Kreyenborg, Managing Director of the German Münster-based company of the same name, which makes plastics reprocessing machinery.

 

Jan-Udo Kreyenborg, Managing Director of Kreyenborg Maschinenfabrik (photo: Kreyenborg)

 

In addition, international heavyweights like Nestlé or Coca Cola are increasing the pressure on China. They have recently begun to insist that a certain proportion of packagings be made from recycled material. Chinese machinery manufacturers do not yet have the necessary capability in this respect, or at least not to the extent that they can meet their international customers’ quality requirements. According to the Verband deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) – German Engineering Federation that is also why Chinese customers are willing to accept higher costs of investing in cutting-edge technology. Apart from quality, the lower running costs resulting from energy efficiency and/or efficient use of materials are important arguments in favour of German plant and machinery.

 

Plant for washing, separating and drying of polyolefin stretch film (photo: Herbold Meckesheim)

 

Different processes

There are basically two different approaches to recycling plastics: mechanical recycling and feedstock recycling. Mechanical recycling preserves the nature of the plastic. In this case, the waste is melted down. Only thermoplastics can be recycled in this way, since they are the only ones whose chemical properties allow them to be shaped through the application of heat. They include for example polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene (PE). Feedstock recycling is used for duroplastics. These include synthetic resins, for example. Duroplastics cannot be shaped, so chemicals are used to break them down into their constituent molecules and they are then used as feedstocks to make new plastics.

 

Scrap is a valuable commodity rather than waste

In many parts of Europe, the era of plastic packaging ending up in landfill is over. In other parts of the world, on the North American continent, for example, this habit is changing only slowly. But things could soon be different. As a result of the tremendous appetite for raw materials in the rapidly growing emerging economies, raw materials are becoming scarce and therefore expensive everywhere. Scrap is turning into a valuable raw material. “Plastics converters all over the world are very keen to get their hands on cheaper raw materials. This requirement can only be satisfied by resorting to secondary raw materials,” says Werner Herbold, Managing Director of Herbold Meckesheim, a supplier of recycling technology specialising in the size reduction of plastics. Werner Herbold reports particularly strong demand from countries that have not seemed greatly interested in recycling up until now, such as the US, Canada and rapidly growing Mexico.

 

Werner Herbold, Managing Director of Herbold Meckesheim (photo: Herbold Meckesheim)

 

The importance of education

Environmental awareness did not arise spontaneously in Germany. Its exemplary recycling industry is also a consequence of regulatory requirements: the introduction of deposit systems, the “Green Dot” scheme and other waste collection systems. There are few such incentives outside of Europe. But many states in the US have recently been discussing the introduction of expanded producer responsibility (EPR), where a product’s manufacturer is also made responsible for its disposal. At its heart, the “Green Dot” scheme is also a form of EPR. If EPR were to be introduced in a lot of US states, that could be an incentive for developing a collection and processing structure. “Through its early introduction of recycling systems, Germany has come to be seen as a model in many parts of the world. We are, for example, pioneers in process technology for the recycling of plastic bottles or electronic waste,” says Peter Mayer, Managing Director of S+S Separation and Sorting Technology.

 

Peter Mayer, managing director of S+S Separation and Sorting Technology (photo: S+S)

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