SIZE REDUCTION | TECHNOLOGY
Increasingly complex and tougher plastics recycling operations require robust and versatile shredders. Mark Holmes reports on some of the latest developments
Flexibility is the key to shredding success
Recycling continues to expand as the wider plastics industry embraces the circular economy and demands higher quality and quantities of recycled material. Increasingly stringent regulations and market pressures from brand owners and the general population looking for sustainable solu- tions are also continuing to drive innovation and progression. In turn, this means that the sector is making further demands on suppliers of key machinery and equipment across the recycling operation and shredding technology is a funda- mental part of this movement. According to Untha UK, plastics continues to be a very hot topic, not just in industry but for the general public too. “This has created a real impetus for change and I do not see the conversation getting any quieter,” says Marcus Brew, Managing Director. “Savvier plastics consumption, reuse and recycling is not considered an option anymore, but a necessity for the good of our planet. It has become an extremely emotive subject now, and rightly so. What this means, in the world of recycling, is that long- standing operators are sense-checking everything, to ensure they are achieving the best possible reuse and recycling rates, however difficult the waste at hand. The savvier technology manufacturers are also responding with innovative new machinery capable of pushing boundaries of what is possible, while keeping costs down.”
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com Brew adds that there continues to be a resolve
within progressive sections of the industry to find solutions to recycling problems that would previ- ously have been deemed not worthwhile. For example, this includes persistent organic pollutants (POPs) occurring in the plastic casings of electronic products, where there are limits for the reuse, recycling and energy recovery potential of the material if it is contaminated. Processors and shredder manufacturers are now collaborating to engineer lines that can safely and compliantly handle these problematic materials, so that there are outlets for the resulting shredded fraction. In this specific market, and throughout the plastics recycling landscape, operators’ hunger to achieve more means they are looking generally to increase their throughputs, while lowering their operating costs. They are also looking for safe, energy-effi- cient and easy-to-use technology, which is flexible, rather than them having to invest in different machines for different plastic applications. With the plastic recycling agenda hotting up,
Brew believes that plastics that would previously have been deemed too difficult to process, are being re-evaluated for their reuse, recycling and recovery potential. He says operators are thinking about how to process tricky plastics and other materials now, such as the transformation of anaerobic digestion and blood plastics, into a
May/June 2021 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 35
Main image: Untha CR single shaft plastics shredder
IMAGE: UNTHA
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