Recycling

Michael Grosshauser, Fraunhofer LBF, presented conclusions of the joint pinfa project with ten companies to trial upcycling of post-consumer and post-industrial secondary polymers: PP, PE, PC/ABS, PET and PA. This follows a previous project with pinfa which showed that PIN FRs were compatible with mechanical recycling, with some losses in performance resulting from deterioration of the polymers in reprocessing (not of the PIN FRs). This new project tested upgrading of secondary polymer streams from recycling companies. The streams supplied showed impurity levels (% of non target polymer) of 1-2% in industry-recovered streams up to >10% in post-consumer streams (from public deposit sorting sites). Addition of antioxidants and stabilisers was generally needed. Reprocessing of the different secondary polymer streams with PIN flame retardants (including phosphorus, nitrogen and inorganic PIN FRs, also with glass fibres) showed gave recycled polymer compounds with valid fire performance, mechanical performance and long-term stability, but some discoloration. A challenge is to limit decomposition of polymers and stabilisers in reprocessing. These tests show the need to develop better understanding of interactions, in recycling – reprocessing, between mixtures of polymers, flame retardants and other additives, and understanding of how to deal with the variability of secondary plastics streams. Now is the time to develop this information, in order to orientate organisation of collection, sorting, and recycling systems.

Interview: Galloo Plastics

Lamiae Safou. The company processes some 50 000 tonnes/year of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) at GALLOO sites across Europe. After removing fluids and batteries, the whole vehicle is shredded, then materials are separated into ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, plastics (which get a second life at Galloo Plastics) and rubbers and foams (which undergo thermal valorisation). 98% of materials (by weight) are thus separated into recyclable fractions. With 25 years of expertise, Galloo Plastics, is dedicated to post-consumer plastic recycling and aims to be the leader in recycling of end-of-life materials from vehicles and WEEE in response to an increasing demand for secondary plastics, driven by the proposed update of the EU End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation. If adopted as proposed, this Regulation will require that at least 25% of plastic used in new vehicles comes from recycling (of which 25% from recycled ELVs). The user demand for high performance in plastics today often obliges to mix virgin polymers into recycled plastics. A further challenge is the constant evolution of chemical regulations, and the resulting problems posed by ‘legacy’ chemicals in recycling streams. Concerning PIN flame retardant solutions, there is a need for new PIN FRs for polystyrene.