INNOVATION | SUSTAINABILITY
more recycled material in our applications.” Dangis says strong participation of companies will be vital for the good functioning and credibility of MORE among the public and legislators. “EuPC will therefore work closely with its members to guarantee a good promotion and distribution of MORE within the plastics converting industry,” he says.
Above: The steps from
lump to chip to quality regrind with Rapid’s Raptor Duo concept
and efficiently re-purposed in the manufacture of new products.” Early in July, several European trade associa-
tions, EuPC, German and Italian machinery associations VDMA and Amaplast, as well as Euromap, the pan-European association for plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers, organised what they say was the first joint work- shop intended to establish new ways to promote the use of recycled polymers. “All four associations aim to enhance the dialogue between plastics machinery manufacturers and plastics converters,” said EuPC in a statement. “The image of plastics has suffered substantially, and it is not expected to improve again in the near future,” says EuPC. Meanwhile, the EU has initiated regulations and declarations supported by pledges from brands and OEMs which are stipulating an increased use of recycled polymers in plastics products. This can be seen especially in the field of packaging, but also in construction, automotive and electrical applications. By 2025, 10 million tonnes of recycled polymers need to find their way into products and new applications in the EU. Additional workshops will take place next year. MORE, a digital platform developed by EuPC to monitor the uptake of recycled polymers into products, went live for use by converters in April. Its objective is to monitor and register the plastics converting industry’s efforts to reach the EU target of 10 million tonnes of recycled polymers used annually between 2025 and 2030. The platform is available across the EU. Alexandre Dangis, EuPC Managing Director, says the industry “now has the opportunity to show- case its efforts towards a circular plastics economy and be more transparent on the volumes of recycled polymers they use in converting infrastruc- tures. With this new European platform, we will also be able to monitor the evolution of the recycled polymers’ performances in order to use potentially
26 INJECTION WORLD | July/August 2019
Granulation Meanwhile, producers of equipment that lies at the heart of many plastics recycling operations – granu- lators – continue to refine their products in line with the demands of the circular economy as well as the more immediate needs of processors. Bengt Rimark, CEO and Global Sales & Market-
ing Director at Rapid Granulator, says: “The plastics market has dramatically changed in recent years on how to look at granulation, in automotive in particular. In the past, the automotive industry has looked at regrind as a potential risk to process and product quality and has in many cases de- manded only virgin material. Today, this has completely changed, and many automotive companies demand that their suppliers guarantee that they are using recycled material in their products. Volvo is openly communicating that by 2025 all the plastic components in their cars should contain a minimum of 25% recycled material. “This has led to Rapid becoming involved
already in the initial stage when new production lines are discussed in order to make sure the recycling part is correctly taken care of. This means that we can make sure that the granulator solution is tailored for the production both in terms of production efficiency and regrind quality.” All Rapid products are modular and so can be fully adapted to the application, Rimark says. “This maximizes the utilisation of the used material and makes sure the quality of regrind is such that it does not affect the production negatively. “This gives the best of all worlds: trouble-free and sustainable operation, as 100% of the material is utilised; and a positive effect on the profit margin as good quality regrind has the same value as the virgin raw material.”
Rimark also highlights the trend towards taking
care of all the plastics production waste, including large start-up lumps, which in the past have often been either thrown away or sold or even given away to external recyclers. Rapid developed its Raptor shredder line for this application. Injection moulders seeking to boost their contribution to sustainability by maximizing in-house re-use/recycling must have a reliable way to produce consistent, clean granulate, free of dust
www.injectionworld.com
PHOTO: RAPID GRANULATOR
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