41 / 44
41
Extrusion International 4/2016
According to PlasticsEurope, the association of plastics
producers, the 1.45 million employees in the European
plastics industry in 2014 were working for 62,000 mainly
small and medium-size companies that generated total
sales of EUR 350 billion. Plastics consumption in the Eu-
ropean industry as a whole came to 47.8 million tonnes,
with about half, amounting to 25.8 million tonnes, being
collected after use. PlasticsEurope investigated the collec-
tion rates in the 28 EU states plus Norway and Switzerland
and found that there is still strong variation.
Although a ban on the landfilling of plastics residuals has
meanwhile been announced in nine countries – Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxemburg, the Nether-
lands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland – the proportion
going to landfill in the other countries is still very high
at as much as 70 per cent. The countries with the high-
est landfill shares are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece
and Malta. What is compared here is the share of plas-
tics residuals landfilled as against the residuals that are
reutilised, i.e. incinerated for their energy content or re-
cycled. Overall, of the total collected residuals in Europe,
about two thirds are now reutilised, while 30.8 per cent
are landfilled. Of the plastics residuals that are reutilised,
about half – 7.7 million tonnes – is recycled and the rest is
incinerated to generate energy.
The goal must be to significantly reduce the quantity of
landfilled plastics in the coming years and to reutilise
more. PlasticsEurope likens the quantity of some 8 million
tonnes of plastics that are currently still landfilled Europe-
wide to a volume of 800 Eiffel Towers. Experts are there-
fore demanding more concrete political targets in all Eu-
ropean countries, educating consumers better to adopt a
more sustainable attitude towards plastics as a resource,
and the introduction of improved, nationwide collection
and sorting systems.
The main fractions are polyolefins
With about 9.5 million tonnes of PP, 8 million tonnes of
PE-LD and PE-LLD and 6 million tonnes of PE-HD and PE-
MD, polyolefins are by quantity the plastics most used in
Europe, collectively accounting for about half of overall
consumption. Because of their quantity and many fields
of application, polyolefins account for the lion’s share
in the recycling streams as well. If these are pure-grade
residues, they can be efficiently processed, so there are
numerous recycling businesses devoted to polyolefin re-
cycling. Some plastics processors are even going a step fur-
ther and, in addition to in-house recovery and the direct
recycling of their production wastes, operate their own
regranulators to produce granulate from their wastes.
One such firm is Polifilm Extrusion GmbH in Weissandt-
Gölzau which generates 25,000 tonnes of regranulate per
year, enabling it to produce bin liners and construction
and agricultural sheeting more profitably.
The situation is more complicated when PE and PP are
mixed, as they are very hard to separate because of their
similar density, and NIR sorting processes are today state
of the art. However, PE and PP can also be processed to-
gether into high-grade products, as mtm plastics GmbH
in Niedergebra demonstrates with its PE/PP regranulate.
DSD Resource GmbH in Cologne specialises in the process-
ing of the pure PP fraction. “We rely on a defined, repro-
ducible starting blend so that we can produce defined,
reproducible regranulate in attractive colours,” explains
Managing Director Dr Michael Heyde.
PET recycling established but with room for expansion
PET, most of which is used for the production of bottles, ac-
counts for almost 7 per cent of total plastics consumption
per year in Europe or about 3.1 million tonnes. Overall, the
30 countries of Europe achieve an average collection rate
Trenntechnik Ulm GmbH has installed a
line specifically for the chemical separation
of PA/PE composite films in Memmingen.
Using this method and a suitable solvent,
it will be possible to recover other raw
materials as well. Image: Trenntechnik Ulm