SPOTLIGHT Plastic Recyclingy
Plastic recycling for Circular Economy and the environment
As the US plastic-bag industry seeks to increase the percentage of recycled content in shopping bags for greater sustainability, Cortec is already ahead in the field
I
n the US, the plastic bag industry aims to increase the volume of recycled content in shopping bags to 20% by 2025 for greater sustainability.
Cortec is already on the case, since the company has been ahead in the fi eld of VCI (vapor corrosion inhibitor) packaging for many years.
A vibrant recycling program Over 20 years ago, Cortec patented a technology for making anti-corrosion fi lm using recycled plastic resin. Today, Cortec leads the market with a vibrant recycling program that produces VCI fi lm – under the VpCI brand – with up to 20% recycled fi lm content, a level that ensures the quality of the products. On average, Cortec regularly manufactures its VpCI-126 fi lm with 15% pre- and post-consumer recycled content, signifi cantly outpacing the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance’s (ARPBA’s) goals of reaching 10% recycled content shopping bags by 2021 and 15% recycled content bags by 2023. In addition, Cortec achieves this in a specialised market that helps industries protect metals from corrosion during shipping or storage. Its VpCI-126 fi lm can be extruded and converted into many diff erent formats and sizes depending on the needs of the end user – from the manufacturer who wants to protect a small metal gear in a VpCI-126 Top-Seal (zippered) bag, to the plant manager looking for an easy way to preserve a large industrial asset in VpCI- 126 fi lm during storage or shipment.
It starts at home
Cortec has been able to minimise its own plastic fi lm waste for decades by recycling in-house VpCI-126 scrap at its Cortec Advanced Films (CAF) plant in Cambridge, the US. Several years ago, Cortec extended this recycling opportunity to a major off -road equipment assembly plant that receives engine components from dozens of suppliers from around the world. After assigning a Six Sigma Black Belt to study the proposal, the
28 September 2020 | Automation
manufacturer adopted the recycling program and eliminated its outdated specifi cation of adding oil to VpCI-126 packaging, since testing showed no impact on corrosion protection.
This in itself saved the customer several
hundred thousand dollars per year by reducing chemical liability insurance costs, allowing it to reuse corrugated plastic liners that previously had to be disposed of due to oil contamination, and letting it participate in Cortec’s recycling program. Because the VpCI-126 bags are also no longer oil-contaminated, the customer bales them and sends them back to CAF for reprocessing into new fi lm. Cortec pays shipping costs and gives the customer credit in return. “The customer’s suppliers’ garbage is now a revenue stream for its plant,” said Mike Gabor, Cortec VP of Sales for Eastern North America, who played an important role in launching the recycling program. Despite inevitable challenges, the fi rm commitment of both parties to make the program work has helped them to establish a true Circular Economy, which is not as easy as it is popular. The result is that CAF is helping save hundreds of tonnes of plastic from landfi ll or the
VpCI films and bags recycled into reprocessed resins for use in extrusion and converting downstream
incinerator and transforms it into a quality new product whilst reducing the carbon footprint for both companies. The same recycling service is available
for European customers at Cortec’s EcoCortec plant in Beli Manastir in Croatia. In addition to being the fi rst Croatian bioplastics plant, EcoCortec is home to Europe’s largest VpCI fi lm extrusion, converting and recycling centre. Access to this recycling service in the heart of Europe is a huge advantage to EcoCortec’s customers that no competitor can match.
Sustained success With the recycling program’s success and CAF’s and EcoCortec’s capacities to implement even more recycled content into its VpCI fi lm, more companies should sign up to the Cortec recycling program to reap its benefi ts. With facilities in the US and Europe, it has never been easier!
http://cortecrecycling.com/ CONTACT:
Cortec
automationmagazine.co.uk
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