Extrusion International USA 1-2020

19 Extrusion International 1/2020 CreatingNewConnections and Simplifying Recycled Plastics Use A joint approach gets the best out of plastics recycling and needs to be transparent if use of recycled materials is to in- crease. About that, everyonewas in agreement at the Interna- tional Recycling Forum inWiesbaden, Germany in late Novem- ber 2019. It is, however, often not straightforwardly possible to replace or supplement virgin material with recycled pellets since no comparable data about their service and mould- ing characteristics is available. Networks capable of sourcing standards-compliant materials can help out here. Andreas Bastian is the Managing Director of plastship, a young com- pany whose principal shareholder is RIGK GmbH. Bastian and Co-Managing Director Konstantin Humm took this as their starting point for developing concepts for boosting the use of recycled materials. Bastian explains where stumbling blocks often still remain in the way of recycling plastics: “There are many good approaches to collecting plastic scrap from various sectors and to establishing closed loops. Some improvements are also being made in terms of the quality of post-consumer recycled materials. But we still haven’t arrived at uniform standards in terms of grades or cre- ated a transparent market for recycledmaterials.” According to Bastian, information is primarily what is missing. All too often, there is a quality and information gap between application and recycled raw material and there is no uniform way of making comparisons with virgin material. “The recycled pellets which are currently commercially available have, by defi- nition, all already been used once. If the application is now to be changed, new and different requirements apply”, is how Bas- tian explains the problem. plastship’s offer plugs this gapbetween recycledmaterial manu- facturers and processors. Bastian explains the advantages: “We offer manufacturers of recycled material a sales tool with the possibility of performance analysis, while, for purchasers of re- cycled materials, we simplify procurement and enable compari- sons. Our platform provides details about recycled plastics in a standardised form and gives an overview of which recycled pel- let grades are suitable for specific applications, soprocessors can quickly and reliably find what they’re looking for. If necessary, we can have technical parameters checked by our partners in polymer analysis.” Bastian and Hummhave adopted specifications in their nomen- clature which only apply to recycled materials. Humm outlines the advantages: “Recycled pellet manufacturers can, for exam- ple, promote their products by particular features in the process while polymer processors can assess the quality of a raw mate- rial. We can, of course, provide personal advice and for instance obtain approvals and conformity certificates.” The company’s founders are currently drawing up standard grades for recycled pellets on the basis of real market data. But plastship’s offer does not stop there. Plastics processors can, for example, also market their recyclable materials or surpluses directly to recyclers. Offers for specific services, such as convert- ing recyclable materials into recycled pellets or toll grinding can be generated via calls for proposals. Offers for individual raw material preparation or for carrying out audits can also be ob- tained via the platform. All the stated functions will be available to every user from version 2.0 of the platform. There was considerable interest in plastship’s offer at the Recycling Forum in Wiesbaden, Germany ( © plastship) ELEKTROWÄRMETECHNIK FRANZ MESSER GMBH E RGE Elektrowärmetechnik - Franz Messer GmbH 91220 Schnaittach - Hersbrucker Straße 29-31 Tel. +49/9153/921-0 Fax +49/9153/921-117 www.erge-elektrowaermetechnik.de mail: verkauf@erge-elektrowaermetechnik.de HEIZEN TROCKNEN REGELN CONTROLLING HEATING DRYING Visit us: Hall 5.1H131 plastship GmbH www.plastship.com