Looking for a green solution

09 January 1996 00:00  [Source: APC]

Research into recycling plastics waste is making headway, with projects worldwide throwing up a number of possible solutions. Naresh Gupta reports.

AT ONE time disposing of waste was a problem that many developed countries took for granted. Today, the perception is quite different. Waste is now the environmental nightmare that concerns everyone.

But some companies are coming up with innovative ideas to manage plastics waste more effectively. The Japanese Plastic Waste Management Institute (PWMI), for instance, is developing a process to convert PVC and other plastics waste materials to fuel oil through pyrolysis under a two-year progamme. Almost US$2.5m has been allocated for research in the first year.

Japanese researchers are hoping to reduce the costs of technology through closer cooperation with firms which have expertise in such areas as liquefaction, dehalogenation, catalysts and waste recovery.

In the second year, a pilot plant is planned near Niigata City, as a jv with Rekisel Koyu. The plant will process up to 6000 tonne/year of plastics waste, which is all the waste discharged by Niigata City.

Research is being carried out around the world in developing plastics which are environmentally friendly. A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a biodegradable material combining corn starch and an ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) polymer, to cease the material from becoming soft or brittle in changing atmospheric conditions.

MIT's department of material science and engineering, led by Edwin Thomas, has been working on creating a one-micron-thick surface with the protective properties of pure plastic. Through varying the ratio of the ethylene and vinyl alcohol components in the EVOH, properties such as non-biodegradable PE to water-soluble, biodegradable PVOH can be produced.

Furthermore, Novamont has improved its starch-based biodegradable film, which is said to decompose in 45 days in composting conditions. It meets decomposing criteria laid down by the Organic Reclamation and Composting Association. The company has also improved the physical properties of its Mater-Bi ZF03U film.

These films, although designed to perform as standard plastics in industrial applications, have an important use in degradable waste collection bags. The films and bags are produced by traditional ldPE film blowing and sealing techniques.

In Europe, a free market for plastics waste is now being established by the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) over the internet. 'It will at last be possible to establish market prices for recyclates at European level on a supply and demand basis,' says EuPC president Joachim Eckstein.

Market prices for plastics recyclates must develop in relation to prices of new plastics, the quality and condition of the wastes, the quantities and the demand by the recyclers. Competition is needed, and can be developed only if suppliers and customers can communicate on the large number of different recyclates available.

One of the problems until now has been how to describe the waste accurately. Unlike plastics straight from the factory, they are not homogenous.

The recycling exchange offered on the internet under the name 'recyTrade' is said to provdie suppliers of plastics wastes with over 100 criteria by which the wastes can be described. Prospective buyers can page through the offers or ask specific questions. As soon as two partners are found, they establish direct contact by the internet, fax or phone and conclude their transaction. For each transaction, the user is charged DM15, which is credited to the RecyTrade system operator EuPC.

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Each converter can now select the recyclates suitable for his purpose. Considerably more waste can therefore be recycled in Germany, according Michael Rathje, chief executive secretary of Industrieverband Kunststoffverpackungen, the federal association of the plastics packaging and films manufacturers.

In a report published by industry consultancy Frost & Sullivan, the serious reduction in the pricing of virgin materials, which has a direct influence on any value of the recyclate, is responsible for the decrease in the value of the European recycled plastics market over the first half of this decade.

Due to the embryonic stage in the development of the industry, the forecast growth rates are high.

The European market for recycled plastics is currently worth around US$1.18bn and is predicted to reach US$2.53bn by the end of the year 2001, according to Frost & Sullivan. As technology lowers the costs of recycling - thus improving the margins available to the recycling companies - new markets are expected to be open up for recyclate in conjunction with new sources of waste and collection schemes.

Chemical recycling will bring a significant change to the industry. This process has the potential to double the size of the plastics recycling market and can also feasibly recycle mixed plastics waste. Chemical recycling is now being tested on plant as a method of recycling the plastics into basic chemicals used in the production of virgin plastics.

The product segment with the highest percentage share of the overall 1995 European market is PE, reflecting consumption patterns, accounting for 51.4% of the recycling market. This is followed by PP and PS, valued at 11.5% and 11.4% respectively. The report also says that the PET sector accounts for 0.7% of the market.

This is however likely to change by the end of the year 2001, when the polyethylene sector will account for 44.4%, followed by PET (gaining share at the expense of PE) on 15.4% and PP on 14%.

The recycling of plastics is marginal economically at the best of times, and when compared to landfill costs cannot compete at all. Consequently, there are many subsidies in most of the countries that have sophisticated waste management systems, the report concludes.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

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