Solid growth projected for recycled plastics market

January 10, 2020 • Injection Molding, Materials, Recycling, Science, Technology

Several reports on the recycled plastics market are projecting increased demand for recycled plastics, including the latest one from Coherent Market Insights: “Recycled Plastics Market 2019-2027: Growth Rate, Market Drivers and Opportunities Evaluation.” The recycled plastics market and demand for recycled plastics “is expected to be driven by the increasing concerns for disposing of virgin plastic and growing awareness about energy savings,” according to Coherent Market Insights, which is headquartered in India and maintains a U.S. office in Seattle.

Infoholic Research LLP said in its report released Nov. 13, 2019, that it expects the recycled plastics market to grow globally by 6.8% CAGR, reaching a value of $66.73 billion by 2025. “North America leads the current market for recycled plastics with the highest per capita plastics consumption providing an opportunity for recyclers,” said Infoholic, headquartered in Bengaluru, India.

recycling profits

Most of the focus on recycled plastics has been on what is collected curbside from households or gathered up from marine environments, where plastic waste is thoughtlessly thrown. This has led to some consumers and various activist groups to wage a fight against plastic waste, particularly single-use items. It has also resulted in a backlash from some in the media to reject recycling solutions, calling recycling part of the problem.

However, most recycled plastic materials come from two primary sources: Post-industrial waste and post-consumer waste. Post-industrial plastic waste comes from manufacturing plants that process plastics into products and collect the waste—non-conforming parts, runners and trim waste (in thermoforming and blow molding)—that the processors cannot use in new parts because of specification/quality constraints. Many plastics processors, particularly injection molders, however, do regrind runner waste and non-conforming parts and add this recycled material to the virgin resin at a percentage allowable by customer specifications. I doubt that gets counted in statistics on recycling. Post-industrial waste is in high demand because it is clean and ready to be reground into flake for use in new products.

Post-consumer recycling is the type of recycling that is most often examined when calculating the percentage of plastic waste that is being recycled. This is waste that comes primarily from municipal waste management recycling facilities that has gone through a sorting process before being sent to a plant where the recyclate is cleaned via a hot water/chemical bath to remove labels, food debris and so forth to make it suitable for processing into flake. Recycled materials from post-consumer sources are often unpredictable in quantity/volume, and are more expensive because extensive operations are required to prepare the material for injection molding new products.

Based on product type, Coherent’s report shows “polyethylene terephthalate (PET) accounted for the largest market share in the global recycled plastics market in 2018,” the last year for which figures were available. “Ease of raw material collection in the form of plastic bottles and easy recyclability are the major factors that are expected to drive growth of the PET segment,” said Coherent. That is followed by high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene and PVC, the fourth largest market by product type.

Coherent points out that “increasing usage of recycled plastics in various end-use industries such as automotive and building & construction, coupled with propelling growth of these industries, is expected to boost demand for recycled plastics, which will in turn drive market growth over the forecast period.”

Durable goods manufacturers can use conventional virgin and recycled plastic materials in their products with very little push-back from anti-plastic activists. Design for disassembly for durable goods such as vehicles has long been on the drawing board.

With the demand for recycled plastic materials projected to increase, companies may be forced to rely on more post-industrial waste for materials. In a recent article, PlasticsToday questioned whether the push toward so-called “biodegradable” plastics would “sabotage” beverage companies’ use of recyclable plastics for PET bottles. That seems unlikely now that there has been a turn in the way some brand owners are recognizing that biodegradable plastics are not recyclable with PET and only degradable in a landfill (maybe) or left in the open environment. Additionally, it appears doubtful that plastics made from everything from mango and avocado pits to banana pseudostems, pineapple leaves, fish guts and crab shells can scale commercially to be a viable solution.

That leaves the recycling of conventional polymers as the best option. Both reports project good growth for the recycled plastics market. With the winds shifting back toward recycling and away from more pie-in-the-sky biodegradables and the even less promising “compostable” materials, these market reports appear to be on target.

Image: Fabioberti.it/Adobe Stock

Are plastic recycling programs rubbish?

January 9, 2020 • Consumer Products, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Once an admirable goal for plastic packaging and single-use plastic products, recycling of late has been called “garbage” (New York Times Magazine), “greenwashing” (Greenbiz) and “The Great Recycling Con” (New York Times). In the latter article, authors Tala Schlossebers and Nayeema Raza call recycling “propaganda” because the industry “wants to trick us into thinking we can use as much plastic as we want so long as we recycle.”

Gee, Tala and Nayeema, tell us how you really feel about recycling!

landfill

Recycling seems to have hit a brick wall primarily because of problems associated with the incompatibility of various plastics. “Current plastic recycling and sustainability goals are limited by the intrinsic incompatibility of many polymers and the negative effect of fillers and impurities on end-product properties, thus requiring a high degree of expensive sorting, separating and cleaning,” Sal Monte, President of Kenrich Petrochemicals Inc. (Bayonne, NJ), told PlasticsToday. Another barrier is that the melt processing of polymers causes “chain scissoring,” resulting in recycle and regrind materials having inferior properties compared with virgin resins.

That is why sorting—a labor-intensive activity that results in a lot of waste—is necessary. Monte noted that the reason for separating #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) from #5 and #7 is because of the incompatibility between the materials, “unless you use titanium/aluminum additives that perform in situ catalysis of polymers and coupling of fillers,” he said. Using innovative additive technology that permits co-mingling of plastic materials into a single waste stream and deriving value from these materials to produce new products is the Holy Grail of recycling.

Monte said that current compatibilizers offered to recyclers are based on co-polymers or maleic anhydride (MAH) modified polymers. “Co-polymer compatibilizers require extensive sorting to match up the polarities of the recycled materials, and maleic anhydride often depolymerizes condensation polymers such as PET and nylon, obviating their use in post-consumer recycle,” explained Monte. “MAH technology claims to be a coupling agent, which is true for rebuilding polymer molecular weight, but it’s a misnomer when applied to coupling filler and organic interfaces.”

But the real problem is money, noted Monte. For recyclers, it’s unlikely that they will spend a penny more on additives to compatabilize co-mingled polymers. He said that sustainability goals such as a circular economy using curbside recyclate in new plastic parts are not achievable economically absent subsidization and legislation because of:

Shale oil—virgin is cheaper;
China’s National Sword—no market;
quality—Industry 4.0/automation;
product liability litigation—specs must be met;
additives are expensive—recyclers will not add a penny to their material costs unless extensive and expensive on-site experimentation is allowed to demonstrate economic and technical efficacy;
curbside recyclers are not polymer chemists—it’s complicated.

Monte agrees with what I’ve written several times in my previous blogs. “Bulk recycling has pretty much been a confusing mess since it started,” he said.

Image: Aryfahmed/Adobe Stock

France charts course for zero-waste society

December 24, 2019 • Materials, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

There is a French revolution nouveau taking place—a revolt against single-use plastics (SUPs). In case you haven’t heard, the French government wants to eliminate all disposable plastic packaging by 2040.

You may have read about France’s decision to end the use of straws, glasses, cutlery, plates, drink stirrers, take-out cups and lids as well as food boxes made of EPS that will take effect in January. France wants to take that a step further, by going from a “disposable” society to a “reusable” one in the country’s drive for Zero Waste 2040 by banning all plastic packaging.

Single-use plastic cutlery

All products that were formerly “disposable” must be “reusable.” That means that even fast food restaurants must provide cutlery, plates, cups and lids that can be washed/sterilized and reused, which pretty much ends the take-out business many of these restaurants currently provide. The energy and water used to ensure the sanitary conditions of these utensils and plates will be enormous. But France has plenty of energy from its nuclear power plants, so energy—and, obviously, potable water—is not a problem.

According to a report by Axel Barrett in Bioplastics News, the bill that will ban all plastic packaging also prohibits the “free distribution of plastic bottles in public and business places. All will have to be equipped with water fountains.” Plans call for the deployment of “bulk devices by 2021, forcing sellers to accept containers brought by the consumer.” Manufacturers who use any type of plastic overwrap will run the risk of a “financial penalty.”

An article in the online media publication Euractiv noted that the “timetable for getting rid of disposable plastics adopted by the majority of [Members of Parliament] has caused an outcry, given that it seems disconnected from what the European Parliament recently declared to be an ‘environmental emergency.’” Euractiv noted that last March, the EU Parliament adopted a “less extensive ban of plates, cutlery, cotton buds and straws” scheduled for 2021.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of France complained: “We cannot wait until 2040 to ban disposable bags, small bottles or plastics in public and at events,” said Euractiv, noting that WWF France “is asking the government to take concrete and immediate action.”

I suppose the French aren’t as concerned about food safety as they are about getting rid of plastic. In many cases, a plastic overwrap is used to protect the product from tampering by some nefarious persons with the intent to do harm to the general public. It also can add to the shelf-life of a product by serving as an added barrier from oxygen that can result in spoilage. That also goes for barrier packaging that employs layers of plastic—forget that! Banned! Food waste will soon be a big problem in France.

And if you think that “bioplastics” and “compostable” packaging products are exempt, think again. As Barrett reported, the French parliament also adopted a new amendment that says if the “packaging is not ‘home compostable’ it cannot be labeled ‘compostable.’” As Barrett noted in his editorial, “This will force bioplastics companies to aim for home compostability instead of just industrial compostability.”

However, we must remind Barrett that “bioplastic” isn’t necessarily “compostable.” Not all compostable materials—plastics and paperboard—can actually be composted in a commercial/industrial composting facility, much less a backyard composting bin. How many Parisians, for example, have a composting bin? Will the French parliament mandate that all households have a composting bin that can actually compost plastics and paperboard? Will the urban French have to install under-the-sink composting bins?

Backyard composting is work! The environment must be kept at a temperature that is conducive to creating compost. The layers of dirt and food waste must be turned every few days. Even large industrial composting facilities have found that compostable or biodegradable plastics and some heavier paperboard containers will not break down enough in six months for the compost to be sold to consumers.

Let’s face it, “biodegradable” and “compostable” are terms used by companies to “greenwash” their products. Barrett believes that this new mandate by the French parliament “may enable a true bioplastics packaging revolution.”

Or maybe not.

The French Parliament recently had an enlightening experience. The alternative for take-out packaging—food containers and cups—is paper or paperboard. However, the plastics lobby educated Members of Parliament on the fact that paper and paperboard cups and take-out food containers are not “waterproof” without a protective layer of—wait for it—plastic! That makes these paper and paperboard items non-recyclable, non-biodegradable and non-compostable!

Plastic cups and lids, plates and take-out containers are recyclable. “Many stakeholders of the plastic industry were afraid that the paper and cardboard industry would benefit from the plastic bashing in the sense that it would be perceived as a sustainable alternative,” Barrett wrote in his editorial. “The plastic lobby was more efficient than the cardboard and paper lobby. The end of paper and cardboard cups in Europe is coming.”

Here's what's on the plastics industry's wish list for 2020

December 20, 2019 • business, Compounding, Consumer Products, Extrusion: Film & Sheet, Extrusion: Pipe & Profile, Injection Molding, Materials, Medical, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

It was one hell of a [insert your adjective] year, but one thing you can’t say is that it was boring. That was true of the movies—The Irishman! Ford v Ferrari! Once Upon a Time in Hollywood! Parasite!—music—Billie Eilish! Lizzo! Billie Eilish!—and, last but not least, politics—Trump! Brexit! Impeachment!

It was a year to remember for the plastics industry, as well, 2019 being a K year, after all. We had a great time at the show, discovering new products, identifying trends and catching up with folks in the industry from around the world.

year change to 2020

But 2019 is winding down and our attention turns to the year ahead, which gave us the idea of asking people associated with the plastics industry what was on their wish list for 2020. Here’s what they told us.

A special thanks to all of the folks who shared their 2020 wish lists with PlasticsToday, and now we invite you, dear readers, to share your wishes for the new year in the comments section below. And allow me to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear, as someone once sang.

Circularity of the economy is a must for the future

Mark Costa, Eastman “As a materials innovation company, Eastman is working toward creating infinite value from our finite resources as we strive to improve the quality of life globally in a material way. We believe circularity of the economy is a must for the future and that chemical recycling is a critical tool for making that happen. In this arena, our greatest wish for 2020 is that chemical recycling becomes accepted as a legitimate recycling option, facilitated by a mass balance credit approach. As a subset of that, we want to see policies and infrastructure created to drive the collection, aggregation and distribution of plastic waste to companies like ours that can use it right now as a feedstock to create new, circular materials.”

—Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO, Eastman

We will drive digitalization even further

Stefan Engleder, ENGEL “Digitalization is paving the way for solving some of the toughest challenges of our time. One important field are the emerging initiatives regarding the circular economy. Only by connecting companies along the value chain, will we be capable of implementing a sustainable recycling network. Digitalization is the enabler of a modern, healthy and eco-friendly life. For 2020, I wish that together, with our customers, we will drive digitalization even further.”

—Dr. Stefan Engleder, CEO, Engel Holding

Plastics is strong

David Preusse, Wittmann Battenfeld USA “Plastic bans continue and may be gaining some momentum, but I can’t state the actual effects since much of it is based on emotion and there are hardly any better materials to replace plastics. We see more advances in plastics applications in the medical field that continue to save lives and push life expectancy. It’s too bad the public isn’t learning how plastics are saving lives and contributing to our sustainability. As governments add more bans and brand owners demand recycling, while China isn’t taking our trash, we might start to see the real change that I believe is possible. Landfills are not the answer.

“The U.S. division of Wittmann Battenfeld had a super year. After 12 years of a wonderful economic climb, I don’t expect 2020 growth necessarily, but if we actually do see growth, I will be very pleased.

“If we don’t follow the negative news media, we are still so fortunate here in the United States. Plastics is strong, and we all should be proud. If a partial slow down comes, just maybe we slow the issue we face in not having enough of a technical trained workforce and slow the challenges in such a low unemployment situation (technical unemployment is below 2%!).”

—David Preusse, President, Wittmann Battenfeld USA

Main image: Phunrawin/Adobe Stock

Ford has a McDonald's caffeine fix for plastic parts

December 18, 2019 • Automotive, Automotive and Mobility, Compounding, Injection Molding, Materials, Materials & Assembly, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology, Thermoforming

Image souce: Ford Motor Co.

Like many commuters, Ford Motor Co. is making a morning stop by Mickey Dee’s for coffee. Only Ford’s coffee run is for the chaff of the dried skin that comes off the beans when roasting them.

McDonald’s USA produces millions of pounds of coffee chaff every year, and now Ford is incorporating some of that waste stream into the creation of injection-molded plastic parts like F-150 pickup truck headlamp housings.

An F-150 headlamp housing. Image source: Ford Motor Co.

Ford’s Sustainability Projects

2007: Soybean-based foam for seats and headliners

2008: Recycled plastic bottles for carpets, wheel liners and fabrics

2009: Wheat straw for storage bins and cup holders

2010: Post-consumer recycled cotton for door and trunk sound-dampening

2011: Recycled tires for seals and gaskets and dandelions for floor mats, cupholders and interior trim pieces

2012: Recycled/shredded US currency for small bins and coin holders and kenaf plant into door bolsters

2013: Rice hulls for electrical harnesses

2014: Tomato skins for wiring brackets and storage bins

2015: Cellulose tree bark for underhood applications

2016: Agave fiber for cup holders and storage bins

2017: Captured CO2 to convert into foams and padding

2018: Bamboo for interior and underhood plastic composite parts

2019: Coffee chaff for headlamp housings and underhood components

The chaff serves as a filler in place of talc, which is normally used to help reduce the weight, increase the strength and improve the heat resistance of plastic parts by blending it into the mixture that is used to make parts

The coffee chaff doesn’t just turn out to be a sustainable alternative to talc, it actually performs even better than the regular material. Of course, if you could just grind up coffee chaff and stir it into plastic materials, suppliers would likely have been doing so already.

Ford’s Research and Innovation Center has developed a process that heats the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen and then mixes it along with other additives into plastic to create the pellets that plastic manufacturers use to create the end product.

Ford and McDonald’s partner with Competitive Green Technologies, which processes the coffee chaff and with Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplies the F-150’s headlamps to Ford. Together, they create parts that are about 20 percent lighter than before and use 25 percent less energy during the molding process, but which have significantly better heat properties than headlight housings made with talc.

“The coffee chaff is even better than the talc material we are replacing,” said Debbie Mielewski, Ford senior technical leader, sustainability and emerging materials research team. “It is better for the environment, lighter weight and it even has better heat properties.”

While McDonald’s produces millions of pounds of chaff annually, the project with Ford is starting off using 75,000 lbs. “Which really is a lot, but it is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Ian Olson, senior director of global sustainability for McDonald’s. “The potential is unlimited,” he enthused.

Indeed, Ford doesn’t plan to stop with just this one part for one vehicle. “We don’t want to put it on just one car line,” said Mielewski. “We start there and grow it until we do sustainability everywhere we can.”

Ford has a record of using recycled and sustainable materials in its vehicles dating to 2007, when the company employed soybean-based foam for seats and headliners. “This has been a priority for Ford for over 20 years, and this is an example of jump starting the closed-loop economy, where different industries work together and exchange materials that otherwise would be side or waste products,” Mielewski explained.

McDonald’s is planning to have all of its coffee beans be sustainably sourced by 2020, which will further improve the benefits of the project. “Like McDonald’s, Ford is committed to minimizing waste and we’re always looking for innovative ways to further that goal,” said Olson. “By finding a way to use coffee chaff as a resource, we are elevating how companies together can increase participation in the closed-loop economy.”

Dan Carney is a Design News senior editor, covering automotive technology, engineering and design, especially emerging electric vehicle and autonomous technologies.

True confessions: A plastics engineer discovers the true meaning of Black Friday

December 12, 2019 • Consumer Products, Materials, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

It happens every year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Stuff is on sale. All kinds of great stuff. And at incredible prices!

Image: Ablokhin/Adobe Stock.

One story about the meaning of the phrase Black Friday is that retailers begin to turn a profit for the year on this day, with their net revenue number going from red to black. I have a hard time believing this. In fact, I have a hard time believing most company reports on profits and losses. I also have a hard time believing general statements on many corporate decisions. Often, the reasoning boils down to a simple statement: It’s not economically feasible.

I took my collection of PE film bags to my local Vons supermarket two days before Thanksgiving. The bag had been sitting in the trunk of my car for several weeks. Someone had referred me to a page to find a collection site. I entered my ZIP code, saw the name Vons on the list, got rather excited. Vons is owned by Albertsons Co., the second largest grocery company in North America. Here in Southern California, Vons stores are everywhere. When I saw Vons on the list, I assumed my local store was involved. I was wrong.

Seems my local store can’t be bothered with collecting plastic bags. I think I can guess the reason: It’s not economically feasible.

I am not an expert, but I know the basic economics of manufacturing and distribution: Fixed costs, variable costs, capital investment, amortization, overhead, gross vs. net, profit vs. loss. I know what’s involved in bringing a new product or new technology to market. Sure, there are times when something is not economically feasible, but there are also times when the real answer is: We don’t know how to do it. Or even worse: We don’t want to do it.

I don’t go shopping on Black Friday. I don’t like dealing with the crowds. Also, shopping online these days has gotten incredibly efficient. I can order anything I need online—the vendor selected based on reliability and cost efficiency—and have it delivered to my door, often at no extra cost. Sometimes, it arrives at my front door within a few hours of my ordering it. How can this be economically feasible?

The delivery itself is simple. The item is well packaged, usually in a cardboard box, with some bubble wrap, foam cushioning, packing peanuts, paper packing slips and receipts, and various PE shipping bags. If I want to keep the item, I take all of the packaging and put it in my recycling bin for curbside pickup. Of course, I am paying for this service via various taxes and fees, but I don’t know the cost breakdown, or if it is economically feasible. But the PE shipping bags I have to separate and take to a specialized collection site . . . which is not my local Vons.

But the funny thing is, if I want to return the item I just bought, with all of its packaging, all it takes is a couple of clicks. I put everything back in the box, drop it off at a local collection site and get a refund within minutes. How can this be economically feasible?

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress. In that speech, he stated that the United States should set a goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. I don’t think he used the disclaimer, just as long as it is economically feasible.

That speech inspired America. In July of 1969, we landed human beings on the surface of the moon and brought them home safely. While we left behind all kinds of trash in the process, that event changed the world.

Today, some 50 years later, we are struggling with the issue of plastic trash. Yes, there are technical problems that need to be solved, but it seems that a lot of effort is being spent trying to determine what is—and what is not—economically feasible.

Now that is what I call a Black Friday.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

― John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University, September 12, 1962

The next part in this series will be published on Dec. 19. If you’re a newcomer to this series, you can read part one here.

Eric Larson Eric R. Larson is a mechanical engineer with over 30 years’ experience in designing products made from plastics. He is the owner of Art of Mass Production, an engineering consulting company based in San Diego, CA. Products he has worked on have been used by millions of people around the world.

Larson is also moderator of the blog site plasticsguy.com, where he writes about the effective use of plastics. His most recent book is Poly and the Poopy Heads, a children’s book about plastics and the environment. It is available on Amazon.

Chemical recycling is back, and it's taking a seat at the circular economy table

December 11, 2019 • Consumer Products, Materials, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Technology

It is said that everything old becomes new again, and that adage is true for chemical recycling of plastic waste. Chemical recycling is a process that has been around for more than six decades but was almost unheard of until the so-called “plastic pollution crisis” came into the spotlight. Now, resin producers are looking at anything and everything in an attempt to find solutions for ridding the planet of plastic waste.

Recycling symbol in futuristic setting

An article in the Dec. 9 edition of the Wall Street Journal, “Plastics Recycling Gets Fresh Tech Push,” authored by Saabira Chaudhuri, discusses the resurgence of chemical recycling, noting that “companies are turning to [chemical recycling] now, partly because of the need to find more recycled material to meet or forestall regulations aiming to cut emissions and waste.”

Chemical recycling ran into the same problem that mechanical recycling encounters: The cost made recycled material more expensive than virgin resin, so what’s the point? Obviously, it has become increasingly important to capture the value of plastic waste and keep it out of the environment, giving rise to the return of chemical recycling, which is getting a lot of attention specifically for difficult-to-recycle plastic waste.

On October 24, 2019, BP announced the development of BP Infinia, which enables currently unrecyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste to be diverted from landfill or incineration and, instead, transformed back into new, virgin-quality feedstock. To that end, BP plans to construct a $25-million pilot plant in Naperville, IL, to prove the technology, before progressing to full-scale commercialization, according to the company’s press release.

BP’s information noted that Infinia technology is designed to turn difficult-to-recycle PET plastic waste, such as black food trays and colored bottles, into recycled feedstock that is interchangeable with material made from traditional hydrocarbon sources. The recycled feedstock can then be used to make new PET packaging that can be recycled again and again. This could reduce the need for downcycling and divert plastic waste from landfill and incineration.

Chaudhuri mentioned that BP’s CEO, Robert Dudley, told investors earlier this year that BP sees chemical recycling as a “game changer,” but also noted that most recycling technologies have to overcome various hurdles. One of those is “getting a steady supply of material to recycle.”

What are the pros and cons, challenges and opportunities of traditional and emerging recycling technologies? How effective are returnable packaging schemes in reducing plastic waste? Clare Goldsberry tackles these questions in “Real world solutions to the plastic waste challenge.” The article can be downloaded free of charge here or by going to the Whitepapers tab on the PlasticsToday home page.

The demand for rPET is big and growing, but another obstacle is collection and, if it is to be virgin-like, eliminating contamination of the recyclate. BP said that it sees the potential to develop multiple full-scale commercial plants using this technology around the world. If deployed at scale in a number of facilities, BP estimates that the technology has the potential to prevent billions of PET bottles and trays from ending up in landfill or incineration every year.

Ineos Styrolution and Agilyx jointly announced on Dec. 9 that they are advancing the development of a polystyrene (PS) chemical recycling facility in Channahon, IL. The facility will be capable of processing up to 100 tons per day of post-consumer PS and converting it into a styrene that will go into the manufacture of new polystyrene products. The facility will leverage Agilyx’s proprietary chemical recycling technology, which breaks down polystyrene to its molecular base monomers that will be used for the creation of new styrenic polymers. This is a true circular recycling approach that enables everyday products, like a cup, to be recycled back into a cup, said the announcement.

Agilyx recently completed a successful development program for Ineos Styrolution that qualified the styrene product to Ineos’ specifications and the post-consumer PS feedstock for the process. The next phase of the project advances the engineering and design of the facility.

“This plant will dramatically increase recycling rates in the greater Chicago area, dispelling the myth that polystyrene can’t be recycled,” said Ricardo Cuetos, VP Ineos Styrolution Americas, Standard Products. “Agilyx’s chemical recycling technology is a game changer to advance the circular recycling pathway of plastics. A benefit of chemical recycling is there is no degradation over multiple cycles—the polymers can continue to create new products over and over again of the same purity and performance as virgin polystyrene. We are thrilled to partner with Agilyx on this project.”

The proprietary Agilyx process can recycle polystyrene contaminated with food and other organics and convert it back into new, food-grade plastic products or packaging. The process demonstrates that so much more post-consumer plastics in the world today can be chemically recycled into new plastic products again and become a renewable resource.

“Polystyrene is the best option for prepared food and beverage containers,” said Agilyx CEO Joe Vaillancourt. “We are excited to be working with Ineos Styrolution to advance this chemical recycling pathway that has the ability to significantly increase recycling rates all over the world.”

Image: Sergey Nivens/Adobe Stock

How to think about plastics in 2020

December 6, 2019 • Automotive and Mobility, business, Consumer Products, Injection Molding, Materials, Medical, Packaging, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Since 1950, approximately 8.3 billion metric tons of virgin plastics have been produced worldwide, the equivalent of 176 million big rigs.

Less than 20% of that plastic has been recycled or incinerated, leaving nearly 80% to accumulate in landfills or as litter in our natural environment. Despite its significant contributions to innovation, the plastics industry has garnered increasing criticism over the years for its environmental impact. In a poll conducted by market research firm Morning Consult in 2018, a majority of people (55%) reported that they did not believe corporations were doing enough to reduce waste that could make it into the environment, and two-thirds of individuals (66%) reported that they would view companies more favorably if they implemented policies to reduce plastic waste.

So, why do we continue to use plastics in the first place?

The argument to remove plastics from our way of life entirely is not a feasible option for Alex Hoffer, Vice President of Sales and Operations at Hoffer Plastics Corp.

The technical answer is that plastic has a high strength-to-weight ratio and can be easily shaped into a wide variety of forms that are impermeable to liquids and are highly resistant to physical and chemical degradation. These materials can be produced at a relatively low cost, making it easier for companies to sell, scale, save and so forth. The primary challenge is that the proliferation of plastics in everyday use in combination with poor end-of-life waste management has resulted in widespread and persistent plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is present in all of the world’s major ocean basins, including remote islands, the poles and the deep seas. An additional 5 to 13 million metric tons are introduced every year.

However, consider for a moment the possibility that the plastics industry is doing more good than harm, and that the environmental issues the industry faces have more to do with recycling than production.

Here is how we should be thinking about plastics in 2020.

Plastics and the environment

Austrian environmental consultancy Denkstatt recently conducted a study to determine the impact of farmers, retailers and consumers using recyclable products (wood, tins, glass bottles and jars, and cardboard) to package their goods rather than plastic. What they found was that the mass of packaging would increase by a whopping 3.6 times, and would take more than double the energy to make, thereby increasing greenhouse gases by an astounding 2.7 times.

One common proposal for replacing plastics with different materials is to replace plastic bags with paper ones in grocery stores. While this may sound like a more sustainable solution, the data does not support it. By volume, paper takes up more room in landfills and does not disintegrate as rapidly as plastic. Because of this, plastic bags leave half the carbon footprint of cotton and paper bags.

Plastics and hunger

In my visits to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, I’ve had the honor to serve those in need of access to nutritious food. While helping stock the pantry or pass out holiday baskets, I couldn’t help but notice how food packaging alone impacts visitors’ perceptions. Most of the food at the food bank is canned or jarred, yet it is the plastic-wrapped food that always looks fresher and a little less dangerous.

Now, consider the properties of plastic that make it so attractive: It is durable, flexible, does not shatter, can breathe (or not) and is extremely lightweight. As a result, food and drink are protected from damage and preserved for previously unimaginable lengths of time.

Top 10 Internet of Space rocket builders

November 27, 2019 • Aerospace, Government/Defense, IoT, Recycling, Science, Technology

Can you name the leading private companies and nations that have the launch capability to maintain a presence in space?

It seems like every few months news of yet another successful rocket launch into space is announced. Most – but not all – of these announcements come from private companies launching communication satellites payloads. The rocket companies are hoping to capitalize on the coming Internet of Space (IoS), which promises global broadband communications.

The rise of private spaceflight companies – primarily in the US – means more rockets are launching into space than ever before. Most of these rockets launch satellites into low orbit but some carry astronauts into much higher orbits. In the near future, some launch vehicles will even carry tourists, e.g., SpaceX’s Dragon, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin. (The latter two seem primarily focused on the nascent space tourist industry).

Here are 10 major space launch vehicle companies and national organizations.
SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, was founded by Elon Musk with the aim of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed the Falcon launch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family, among others. The company made history again in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The company’s Starlink mission is a satellite constellation design to provide satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites.
United Launch Alliance

ULA was formed by the union of Boeing and Lockheed Martin in 2005, using the Delta IV Heavy launcher to get large payloads into space. But the price tag for that rocket is high, several times more than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy platform. That’s why ULA is working on a more powerful and semi-reusable launcher known as the Vulcan. The recyclable portion of the Vulcan system will be the engines.
ArianeGroup

The ArianeGroup is billed as the guarantor of Europe’s autonomous, reliable access to space. In 2015, the ArianeGroup was founded as a joint venture of the European aerospace company Airbus and the French group Safran. The ArianeGroup is the primary contractor for manufacturing of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, and provides commercial launch services through its subsidiary Arianespace. In 2018, Ariane 5 celebrated its 100th launch. The company is working on the Ariane 6 to carry heavier payloads, which may launch in 2020.
Amazon/Blue Origin

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2001 to be initially focused on suborbital spaceflight. Several of its suborbital New Shepard vehicles have been built and flown, although only a handful of satellite missions have been performed. The main focus of the company seems to be launching people to space aboard the New Shepard. In September 2016, Blue Origin announced its plans for the enormous, reusable, and orbit-capable New Glenn rocket system.
Virgin Orbit

The company was formed in 2017 to developed an air-launched rocket carried by the Cosmic Girl aircraft – a previous project of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Virgin Orbit (part of the Virgin Group) plans to provide launch services for small satellites. In July 2019, the company announced that it had completed a key drop test of its LauncherOne vehicle, the last major step in the development program of the launch service. More recently, Virgin Galactic opened a ‘Gateway to Space’ in New Mexico for its tourists in space program using the USS Unity aircraft.
Stratolaunch Systems

Stratolaunch Systems, founded by Paul G. Allen, consists of a carrier aircraft called the Stratolaunch and a multi-stage payload launch vehicle (still being built). The payload vehicle would be launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier aircraft. In April 2019, the Stratoluanch aircraft completed its first complete flight. In October 2019, the company announced continuing regular operation and change of ownership without naming the owner.
National Rockets

US – NASA and Military

The US Government/Military still rely heavily on Delta IV, Atlas V and more recently SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets to launch most of their satellite and other payloads. Meanwhile, NASA has designed and is testing the Space Launch System (SLS)as the foundation for a generation of human exploration missions to deep space, including missions to the Moon and Mars. The SLS will send the Orion spacecraft, its astronaut crew and cargo to deep space.
China

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is the national agency that co-ordinates the country’s space activities. In 2019, China launched 27 orbital missions – more than Russia or the US separately for the same time period. One of the recent launches was for the Beidou navigation satellite launched by a Long March 3b carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
India

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the workhorse and third generation launch vehicle of India. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV Mk II) is currently the largest Indian launch vehicle. The most upcoming event will be the launch of PSLV-C47 carrying Cartosat-3 scheduled on November 25, 2019.
Russia

The Agency that coordinates the space activities for Russian is known as Roscosmos. It performs numerous civilian activities including Earth monitoring and the astronaut program. Roscosmos launch vehicles include the R-7 (commonly known as the Soyuz rocket) and the Proton.

John Blyler is a Design News senior editor, covering the electronics and advanced manufacturing spaces. With a BS in Engineering Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering, he has years of hardware-software-network systems experience as an editor and engineer within the advanced manufacturing, IoT and semiconductor industries. John has co-authored books related to system engineering and electronics for IEEE, Wiley, and Elsevier.

Bridgestone aims to recycle two million used tires to make new ones

November 27, 2019 • Automotive, Automotive and Mobility, Compounding, Materials, Materials & Assembly, Recycling, Science, Sustainability, Technology

Bridgestone off-road tires, like this Firestone Destination M/T made at the company’s Aiken, S.C. plant, are candidates to be made with a blend of recycled carbon black. (Image source: Bridgestone Americas)

Carbon black, the sooty by-product of incompletely oxidized petroleum that is used to reinforce the rubber in tires, is such a sought-after commodity that Bridgestone Americas, Inc. expects demand to outstrip supply.

To ensure the supply of carbon black so that it can keep making tires and as a step toward Bridgestone’s commitment to cut its carbon footprint in half by 2050, the company has started blending in recovered carbon black extracted from worn-out tires for use in its new tires.

Delta-Energy Group recovers the carbon black from this crumb rubber of old tires. (Image source: Bridgestone Americas)

Bridgestone started looking at the Delta-Energy Group, LLC’s work in this area starting in 2007, and the companies became partners on the project in 2014, with the goal of promoting industrial-scale recycling, or a “circular” economy.

“Bridgestone Group is deeply committed to advancing an environmentally sustainable society by supporting a truly circular economy,” said Nizar Trigui, chief technology officer, Bridgestone Americas, Inc. “Through this partnership with Delta-Energy Group, we hope to shape the future of our industry and ensure efficient mobility solutions for generations to come.”

Firestone agricultural tires like these will start using recovered carbon black. (Image source: Bridgestone Americas)

Extracting carbon black from old tires provides an 81 percent reduction in CO2 versus creating new virgin carbon black, Bridgestone reports.

The partners have understood the fundamentals of recovering carbon black and re-using it in new tires for a while, but the nitty gritty details have needed sorting out to ensure that the performance and wear characteristics of the new tires with recycled carbon black are exactly the same as those made only with so-called virgin carbon black made directly from petroleum.

Jamie McNutt, Technical Fellow for Bridgestone’s Product Development Group (Image source: Bridgestone Americas)

In the early days, the recovery process charred the old tires so totally that it there wasn’t much left of value, noted Jamie McNutt, Technical Fellow for Bridgestone’s Product Development Group. “The original materials were burned to the point it didn’t have any reinforcement left in the material,” she recalled. Because reinforcement is the purpose of adding carbon black to tires’ rubber, that meant the recovered material was not useful.

Since then Delta-Energy has shifted to a low-oxygen pyrolysis process that minimizes the burning and retaining more of the structure, McNutt said. So far, Bridgestone has bought the equivalent of 70,000 recycled tires worth of carbon black from Delta-Energy, while verifying the correct ratio of recovered carbon black to virgin in the agricultural and passenger car tires where it will be used.

The blend turns out to be about 80 percent virgin and 20 percent recycled carbon black, reports Jon Kimpel, Executive Director of Bridgestone’s New Mobility Solutions Engineering. The material will be used in the tires’ sidewall inner liners, not in the tread area, he added.

The goal is to recycle two million tires to recover and re-use their carbon black in 2020. “As Delta-Energy[’s capacity] grows, that will allow us to grow as well,” he said.

In contrast, the overall tire industry will be facing price increases and availability constraints for virgin carbon black due to tightening regulations that make it difficult for those suppliers to expand production, according to Kimpel. “Supply is not going to be able to keep up with the pace of product.”

Bridgestone makes a lot more than two million tires each year, so the recycling program won’t make the company’s operation fully “circular,” that is a very significant volume. “We’re really proud of what we’re doing,” Kimpel said, “not only in recovered carbon black, but in sustainability overall. It is a good first step.”

Dan Carney is a Design News senior editor, covering automotive technology, engineering and design, especially emerging electric vehicle and autonomous technologies.