Extrusion Asia Edition 1-2019

In Latin America, the Gneuss recycling process has also achiev- ed the standards set by the Colombian food safety agency, Invima and its Argentinian counterpart, Senasa for processing 100 % post-consumer PET waste to food contact products. In Europe, the Gneuss recycling process has passed the EFSA challenge test for the processing of 100 % post-consumer PET. A study by the British charity for promoting recycling, “Waste and Resources Action Programme” (WRAP) in 2016 showed that with the help of the Gneuss Recycling Process, it was pos- sible to take post–consumer thermofor- med PET pots, tubs and trays from hou- sehold waste and recycle them back into the same products, for food contact. Un- like the re-processing of PET bottle flake to sheet for thermoforming, this process is a truly circular one. The study was published under the title: “Development and optimisation of a re- cycling process for PET pots, tubs and trays”. Thanks to the unparalleled devolatilisati- on performance of the Gneuss MRS ex- truder, contaminants such as oils, other harmful volatiles and also odours are ef- ficiently removed from washed PET scrap without the need for pre-drying or any other heat treatment of the material prior to extrusion. Avoiding the need for heat treatment of the material prior to extrusion saves not only investment and energy costs, a whole inflexible process is eliminated, together with the risk of damage to the material. The polymer is processed extremely gently in the low shear MRS extruder. The final product has excellent colour (low yellowing) and transparency. In addition to the food contact approvals for PET, this year Gneuss obtained ap- proval from the American FDA for the processing of post-consumer polystyrene to food contact products. Polystyrene post-consumer waste can be reproces- sed on the Gneuss MRS extruder to sheet for foamed and rigid food contact containers. In 2009 and 2011, trials by the WRAP or- ganisation already showed that with the help of the Gneuss MRS Recycling Pro- cess, it is feasible to achieve the conditi- ons of the FDA challenge test for proces- sing post-consumer polypropylene and polyethylene for food contact applicati- ons. The results of this test were publis- hed by WRAP under the titles “Commer- cial Scale Mixed Plastic Recycling – a re- port on the technical viability of recycling mixed plastic packaging waste from do- 29 Extrusion Asia Edition 1/2019 Gneuß Kunststofftechnik GmbH Mönichhusen 42, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany www.gneuss.com mestic sources on a commercial scale in the U.K“ and “Develop- ment of a Food-Grade Recycling Process for Post-Consumer Po- lypropylene“.