RECYCLING | ADDITIVES
The compounding industry is making use of recycled polymers and that presents challenges. Mark Holmes discusses recent developments with some leading providers of additive solutions
Recycling options gather pace
Additives are essential in improving the perfor- mance and processability of all plastic compounds and that’s no different for recycled polymers, which are being increasingly used today as compounders respond to end-user demand to enhance sustain- ability credentials. In fact, the trend today is to upcycling – where the aim is to lift the performance of recycled polymers back to near virgin. According to Mike Fulmer, Vice-President of
Struktol Company of America, recyclers are taking advantage of additive opportunities to provide higher performing compounds. “Recycling com- pounders have customers that are demanding better performing, tailor-made compounds and using additives can allow them to do this. The growing availability of recycle streams of all quality levels are allowing recycling compounders to take advantage of lower cost streams and modify them using additives to create value added products,” he says. “We get many customers who come to us and tell us they have access to a volume of polymer that typically they would not be able to use. They ask us for additive solutions that would allow them to use
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this polymer and add value to it. Previously, many would shy away from using additives but the more success they have using them opens many win- dows of opportunities,” Fulmer says.
Processing challenges Struktol focuses on three key challenges that recycled resin processors face – MFR modification of recycled polypropylene (PP), odour control and homogenisers. “We have a line of viscosity modi- fiers that allow processors to turn low MFR, high viscosity PP streams into higher MFR products. A lot of available PP streams are low MFR and the ability to create higher MFR compounds allows for access to a wider segment of the moulding market,” Fulmer says. “In addition, the ability to turn high odour recycle streams into low/no odour com- pounds can be important for allowing recyclers to access certain market applications…Finally, mixed polymer recycled streams can have process and property issues if they are not processed correctly by the recycler,” he adds. The company has developed a number of
Main image: Additives can help manage the challenges of producing compounds from recycled plastic, improving performance and processing
September 2018 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 55
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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