Extrusion International 2-2023

31 Extrusion International 2/2023 Processing of Increasingly Green Plastics – Innovation Opens Up to Circular Economy T oday, more than ever, the plas- tics industry is showing increased sensitivity to environmental issues with a view to fostering a circular economy, in terms of plastic produc- tion and consumption. Focus that also translates into concrete actions by the European Union, which has included this material among those with the highest priority for action in the framework of the Action Plan for the Circular Economy. In more detail, the so-called Plastics Strategy and the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive were developed to guide the move towards a more sustainable model. In this sense, the need emerges to adopt a unified strategy that tackles the challenge in a synergetic manner, focusing on three pillars: reducing the consumption of virgin polymers, recycling post-industrial and post-consumer waste, and re- placing its use with bioplastics made from plant-based raw materials. "We are facing a real paradigm shift that is influencing the devel- opment of the latest generation of extrusion machines capable of op - erating with even greener formu- lations" says Massimiliano Fenili, the company's Technical Manager, who continues: "Our customers are becoming increasingly environ- mentally aware and are investing in advanced technologies and in a virtuous policy of recovery and recycling." And he concludes: "In this scenario, Bausano is at the fore- front, alongside the sector's opera- tors, to respond to the market's new requirements, with ad hoc designed technologies that implement in- novative transformation methods, which are also energy-saving. This is a role that Bausano - a lead- ing international player in the de- sign and production of customised extrusion lines for plastics process - ing - successfully fulfils, by virtue of its in-depth knowledge and ex- pertise of the pros and cons of each material and production process. A platform of solutions that Bausano, starting from the same technologi- cal root, constantly enhances to achieve ever higher levels of sophis- tication that meet every technical challenge related to the different formulations. With this in mind, Bausano, in addition to the already popular plant fibre-plastic compos- ites, designs innovative extrusion lines that can also process blends that integrate environmentally sus- tainable plastics, such as PLA, with the plant component (rice husks, coffee grounds, banana peels, seaweed, almond shells, avocado kernels, cork and other plant resi- dues). A further case of excellence, in terms of sustainable innovation by Bausano, is the processing of an even more sustainable formulation of Wood Plastic Composite (WPC), no longer only obtained from a combination of PVC and sawdust, rice husks, etc., but also from plastic waste together with the plant com- ponent. In such a scenario, Bausano's add- ed value, in addition to the tech- nological core of its extruders, lies in product engineering with tests aimed at creating customised con- figurations capable of securing a competitive advantage for its cus- tomers, such as: • ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene sty - rene) terpolymer derived from the recovery, post-consumer, of elec- tronic equipment (WEEE) undergo- ing testing with an unprecedented experimental line under the banner of maximum production perfor - mance; •LDPE (low-density polyethylene) thermoplastic polymer from bottle caps with up to 60 per cent post- consumer material, for an output of 750 kg/h by twin-screw extruders of the MD series;