Extrusion International USA 3-2019

11 Extrusion International 3/2019 RecyClass Platform Much of the plastic packaging placed on the market today requires a redesign to be circular. Design for recycling is the starting point in ensuring the genuine circularity of plastics and reaching the 55% recycling target by 2030 in Europe. The main purpose of the RecyClass Platform is steering the shift towards circularity of plastics by working with the whole value chain on advancing the recyclability of plastic packag- ing, while making it compatible with existing recycling tech- nologies. Moreover, the Platform is working on the development of ‘Recyclability Evaluation Protocols’ for the different polymers and packaging that are placed on the EU market. As the shift towards circularity will require innovation, the objective is to develop new laboratory procedures for recyclability testing of innovative packaging. The RecyClass Evaluation Protocols aim to be an European-wide, standardized and scientific- based tool to asses and measure on a lab scale the impact of an innovative material/package in the existing recycling streams. This is crucial in order to prevent innovations that could create problems in recycling, instead of solving them. Last year, ‘RecyClass Evaluation Protocols for PE films’ was published*. For multilayer flexibles, the impact of barriers like ethylene vinyl alcohol, polyamide and metallization are under evaluation, to allow for a precise, scientific compat- ibility check during the PE film recycling process. Scheduled for this year are also laboratory tests for other polymer types. Furthermore, any innovative technology developed by the member companies can be analyzed and endorsed by the Platform. Among the growing network of partners that are now part of the initiative, there are raw material producers, packag- ing manufacturers, fast-moving consumer goods companies, brand owners and packaging decoration specialists. RecyClassTM c/o Plastics Recyclers Europe www.recyclass.eu *www.plasticsrecyclers.eu/your-plastic-film-recyclable-test-it Brazilian Market for Plastics Machinery Brazil is Europe’s most important trading partner in Latin America. In 2018 the export of plastics and rubber machinery from the EU to Brazil amounted to 169 Million Euro. Reason enough to have a close look on the Brazilian Market for Plas- tics Machinery. This is why EUROMAP, in cooperation with the „Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Maschinenbaues“, gave MaxiQuim, the largest Brazilian consulting company for the chemical industry, the order, to analyse the current machine installations and to evaluate the prospects for the future. As a first market segment, the Brazilian packaging industry was analysed. Therefore, MaxiQuim interviewed 75 compa- nies producing consumption and industrial packages. The market is dominated by smaller companies with up to 100 employees and a capacity below 5000 kton of processed material per year. With an average age of 10 years of the machines, the situation in Brazil is similar to Europe. The economic recession in recent years has affected investments and the machine utilization rate was relatively low (average 75%). However, 40% of the companies plan investments in the next 5 years, partly more than 1 Million Euros. For injec- EUROMAP c/o VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery www.euromap.org tion moulding higher investments are expected than for ex- trusion. In total, future investments depend on an effective resumption of the machine utilization rate. Higher value- added products such as multi-layer flexible packaging are identified as a future trend. As consequence, the quality of the machine has been mentioned a most important purchas- ing factor, followed by the price. Although an increasing lev- el of automation and productivity is requested, Industry 4.0 (smart factory) has not really reached Brazil yet. EUROMAP plans to conduct following studies for updating the figures and findings and for regarding other segments like automotive.