Plastic Packaging Recycling, New Tools and Processes

During the 3rd Expo for the Environment, Verde Tec 2019, the chairman of the AGMPM presented in the Workshop 'Business in the Green Age' the new tools for recycling plastic packaging.

The first chapter of the presentation included the latest studies of OECD and McKinsey as well as a review of the European legislation (2018/852, Single use plastics directive) and the restrictions of exporting plastic waste to China, Malaysia, India, Poland etc. Then, he presented innovative projects and pilot processes developed in Europe for the recycling of plastic waste: Enval, Saperatec, Holly Grail project, Digital watermarking, CreaSolv, CEFLEX.

In the third chapter Mr. D. Mantis presented the new techniques developed for the mechanical recycling of plastic packaging (twin screw extrusion, degassiong, purification purges) and then mentioned a few indicative success stories of redesigning plastic packaging structures: Coveris, DOW, Borealis, Petoskey, Mondi, Schur, Parkside, Constantia Flexibles, Quadpack, KHS, Elopak, RPC, Klöckner Pentaplast.

A very important point mentioned was the international collaboration among retailers, brands, packaging suppliers, recyclers and start-ups. Typical examples given on the following products: silicon release liners, PET bottles, PP bottles, HPDE bottle, aseptic PolyAl structures, PET trays, PS trays, laminated pouches and SUP.

Then, the new lab, pilot and semi-pilot processes for the enzymatic and chemical recycling of PET were emphasized: Biosellection, Thanaplast, Gr3n's. The last part was dedicated to PTF (Plastics to fuel) and PTO (Plastics to oil) technologies with typical examples of Bin2Barrel, ReOil, TACOIL, ΙΗ2 (Shell), Cat-HTR.

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