Reclaimers install specially designed shredders, scientists tweak scrap thermosets so they can be remolded, and four technologies win over $1 million in grants.
Technology roundup
Tagged technology
Reclaimers install specially designed shredders, scientists tweak scrap thermosets so they can be remolded, and four technologies win over $1 million in grants.
A group of companies recently received approval to use their recycling technologies to create recycled plastic for use in food packaging.| Dolores M. Harvey/Shutterstock
The European Food Safety Authority gave four companies approval to recycle PET into food packaging using Erema and Starlinger technologies. Meanwhile, an application from Veolia was rejected.
Two labels and two families of washable inks recently met APR’s critical guidance protocols. | Photo Play/Shutterstock
Four label innovations that prevent problems in the PET recycling process recently received recognition from the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR).
Coperion recently supplied extruders from its ZSK line to a German post-industrial scrap plastics processor called Aurora Kunststoffe.
German equipment supplier Coperion now produces a line of extruders made to be customized to a plastics recycling facility.
A bottle delabeler goes to work in a PET sorting plant, and a number of major corporations sign deals with chemical recycling companies.
Most shrink-sleeve labels pose challenges for PET bottle recycling, but recycling-friendly innovations were recently recognized by the Association of Plastic Recyclers. | Jared Paben/Resource Recycling, Inc.
Three shrink films for PET bottles and a collection of label inks have passed recyclability reviews by the Association of Plastic Recyclers.
If EVOH is used at too high of a level in an HDPE container, it can damage the quality of the recycled HDPE. | Koray Akar/Shutterstock
An innovation is allowing natural HDPE bottles containing higher levels of EVOH to be recycled into pellets that are free of yellowing, gels and specks.
Coperion K-Tron’s feeder can be used for both loss-in-weight feeding to continuous processes and loss-in-weight batching direct to batch blenders. | Courtesy of Coperion K-Tron
The variability of recycled plastic streams doesn’t just present challenges in terms of extruding and molding products. It also complicates the feeding of plastic into compounding equipment.
Troy University researchers are investigating methods for recycling medical plastics into new products. | Rob Byron/Shutterstock
The coronavirus has put a focus on the plastics used in the manufacture of gloves, masks and other types of personal protective equipment. KW Plastics will assist Troy University scientists who are studying the recycling of that material.
Agilyx licenses its depolymerization technology to a PS producer, a European project explores optical sorting of PU foams, and a case study looks at KW Plastics’ granulators.