RECYCLED PLASTICS | MATERIALS
The rise of recycled materials
The need to include recycled plastics in new products is set to grow, driven by legislative and OEM pressures. Materials groups are aiming to meet these needs, writes Chris Saunders
The use of post-industrial plastics waste is not a new concept for injection moulders, but the introduction of sustainability goals in EU legislation and in the strategies of OEMs means recycled content is becoming increasingly important, from both post-industrial and post-consumer sources. In recent times, the use of recycled materials has
grown in packaging and increasingly in automotive applications, white goods and electrical and electronics (E&E) applications where the need is for engineering polymers that incorporate recycled material and also meet performance requirements. For example Audi, BMW and other groups are developing applications that use recycled plastics, with extra impetus expected to come from the European Commission’s plans for a 25% recycled plastics content target in its revision of the EU’s End-of-Life Vehicles Directive (see page 21). Polymer producers and compounders have
responded with the launch of new grades of polyolefins, styrenics and engineering plastics that have a proportion of material recovered by me- chanical recycling, or are mass-balanced versions of
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virgin grades for which the producer has partly used chemically recycled plastic feedstock. Compounding group Benvic has steadily grown its in-house recycling and compounding capabili- ties in line with its corporate expansions over the past five years. Mechanical recycler Ereplast was acquired in 2018 and has been steadily integrated into the mainstream of Benvic’s business, which was built upon PVC products but has since wid- ened to include polyolefin and other compounds. “Mechanical recycling is key to Benvic’s future.
We recognise it as a major ingredient in our mix going forward,” says Eric Grange, Benvic’s Product Marketing Manager. The company says the tasks of the compounder
start with evaluating the incumbent material and the application for retrofitting with recycled material. Possible new manufacturing techniques also need to be considered and developed accordingly – two shot injection moulding, for example, with a core of recyclate and an outer virgin material. “If a wholesale retrofit is not entirely possible then the mechanical recyclate needs to be consid-
September 2023 | INJECTION WORLD 13
Main image: BMW Group has set itself the target of increasing the proportion of secondary materials in its brands’ new models from around 30% at present to 50%
IMAGE: BMW
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