Extrusion International 3-2024

20 Extrusion International 3/2024 INDUSTRY NEWS Carbon Footprint for Products and Entire Companies  The SKZ Plastics Center has had a research group on the subject of sustainability for 19 years. As a re- sult, scientists at the Würzburg Plas - tics Institute can draw on a wealth of experience and a comprehensive da- tabase on materials and plastics pro- cessing. The SKZ uses this knowledge to support companies from industry. In the course of the sustainability reporting obligation, the determina - tion of the CO 2 balance for compa- nies is currently gaining even more importance. The carbon footprint determines the sum of all climate- relevant gases emitted by a product (product carbon footprint) over its entire life cycle or by a company (cor- porate carbon footprint). It is a start- ing point for developing an effective climate strategy. However, there is often a lack of basic data, which must first be laboriously determined. SKZ researchers not only look back on many years of practical ex- perience, but now also have a good basis of comparative and standard data. This means that the employ- ees in the Sustainability department at SKZ can not only create CO 2 bal- ances for individual products or en- tire companies in accordance with ISO 14067, but also provide support in identifying adjusting screws and selecting suitable measures to en- able plastics producers and proces- sors to act more sustainably. "Our carbon footprints are cal- culated and comprehensively doc- umented according to recognized methods and standards and thus provide a sound database for cli- mate-specific product and compa- ny assessment," says Dr. Hermann Achenbach, Head of Sustainability at SKZ. "We are currently facing a very high demand, as the plastics industry has recognized the signs of the times and is working inten- sively on climate protection and is also accelerating the transition to a circular economy. We want to act as a trailblazer for the indus- try here and are happy to support it to the best of our ability," says Achenbach. In addition to the comprehensive support, it is now also possible to ac - cess free online tools developed at the Plastics Center – such as SCO2RE for CO 2 balancing of technical plastic recyclates. The SKZ also offers fur- ther training on this topic: a course entitled "Calculating your own CO 2 footprint" provides participants with the necessary tools to evalu- ate their own products in terms of climate protection. The SKZ Plastics Center Dr. Hermann Achenbach h.achenbach@skz.de www.skz.de At the SKZ, a complete area is available for questions relating to plastics and sustainability (Photo: Luca Hoffmannbeck, SKZ) Joint Project Proves the Feasibility of Separating Multilayer PVDC Films from Polyolefins in Used Packaging Structures  Syensqo and TOMRA, a leading provider of sensor-based sorting tech- nology and solutions for the circular economy, have joined forces to dem - onstrate the technical and economic feasibility of separating and sorting multi-component plastic structures in which polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) serves as a barrier layer. The partners developed a joint set of experiments with multilayer sam- ples of commercial packaging waste consisting of low-density polyeth- ylene (LDPE) and Syensqo’s Ixan® PVDC. The results have proven that multilayer films containing PVDC can be separated from mixed plastic waste using industrial sorting equip- ment to achieve clean-grade poly- olefin and PVDC recycling streams. “The overall target of this proj - ect was to challenge major industry standards which claim that multi- layer PVDC films cannot be sorted out of multilayer packaging struc- tures,” explains Federico Baruffi, Global Marketing Manager, Spe - cialty Polymers, at Syensqo. “Our experiments have demonstrated the contrary and are sending a clear message to the packaging and recycling industry that it can be done, notably with good accuracy