The Complex World of Plastic

Give us the feedstock and we’ll do the job.

That seems to be the attitude of many plastics recyclers, particularly those processing the most common resins such as No. 1 PET and No. 2 HDPE.

But there are still vast amounts of plastic material that remain on the recycling sidelines as research continues into ways to establish a plastics recycling infrastructure that will capture a larger share of the plastic component of the solid waste stream.

CHASING CONTAINERS

"The problem is probably worse than it was a year ago," says Alan Logan regarding the availability of HDPE containers for recycling. Logan is marketing manager for Ensley Corp., a plastic recycler based in North Canton, Ohio, with facilities in North Carolina.

Logan says that when makers of virgin resins raised their prices earlier in 1999, it helped usher some new customers toward recycled resins. "The demand side just went wild when the virgin became harder to get and when the price increases took effect in early spring," he comments. "Plus, collection of containers has been flat or decreased."

The price increases that started with virgin resins finally boosted prices paid for secondary resins and their feedstock. "We’ve needed the increases, of course, to make it more worthwhile for the collectors," Logan says.

KW Plastics, Troy, Ala., makes pelletized HDPE from recycled containers. General manager Arthur Ferguson says one of his primary concerns is with procuring enough feedstock. "I would say the problem is worse now than it was a year ago because demand is higher," Ferguson says. "Just about everybody that we furnish our product to has asked for an increase, plus we have people we have never sold to calling up to request our product."

The strong demand has helped KW commit to capital improvements. "We’re starting up a new washing line, probably in September," says Ferguson. "It will give us another 250 million pounds of wash capacity per year."

He sees supply staying tight for scrap plastic containers however, especially for clear HDPE containers, which are facing new competition in the milk jug segment from colored HDPE bottles.

"A lot of people are going to white and colored milk bottles, which does change the nature of the supply," says Ferguson.

"It’s good for the dairies, but its not good for recyclers," Logan says of the colored containers, which can protect some dairy products by blocking out certain light rays. "It’s definitely a trend. If it doesn’t get any worse, we’ll be all right, but if the trend continues, it’s really going to hurt the amount of material that we have available for our customers."

Many plastics recyclers are beginning to research how to manage a container stream that may change dramatically over the next few years.

"We like to think we’ll be flexible enough to work with the mixed color stream if it comes to that," says Ferguson.

Recyclers of plastic containers may have to resigns themselves to work with the containers provided—whatever color they may be—and continue to focus their efforts on increasing the collection rates of HDPE and PET containers.

A PROMPT CONCLUSION

While large amounts of plastic containers and plastic in other forms continues to enter landfills, plastic is being recycled in very high percentages at factories throughout North America.

Plastics product makers, much like metals producers before them, have developed systems to reuse factory trimmings, grindings and other forms of plastic factory scrap.

"For the past few years, we haven’t even sold to recyclers, but have concentrated on selling to manufacturers," says Jeff Taylor, president of Hempstead Industries, Troy, Mich. He says his company is selling many of its low-speed shredders to plastics manufacturers setting up their own recycling systems.

The company has been selling its shredders predominantly to makers of "automotive parts and consumer goods [who] process factory trimmings, purgings, skeletons from die-cut material" and other forms of plastic factory scrap, according to Taylor. "The plastic industry is as diverse as anything on Earth," he notes, but one thing the diverse set of companies has in common is that they would rather recycle their scrap than throw it out.

The recycling taking place in factories tends to go unrecognized in the equations formulated to determine post-consumer recycling and landfill diversion rates, but it has helped plastic industry companies and executives determine there are viable methods of recycling plastic.

MOLECULAR BREAKDOWNS

Much of the plastic recycling taking place now involves granulating, flaking or pelletizing obsolete plastic items. Research continues, however, into breaking plastic items back down to their base components on the molecular or polymer level.

In 1998, both DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del., and British Petroleum, London, announced progress in methods to break down certain types of plastic back into their component parts.

DuPont’s method involves converting some polyester-based items into reusable liquid chemicals. The Petretec process has been used to process Mylar window film by "unzipping" the polyester molecule and breaking the Mylar back down into its raw materials. "Because these monomers retain their original properties, they can be reused over and over again in any first quality application," says DuPont’s Mary Ruth Johnson.

The BP Chemicals division of British Petroleum is constructing a facility in Scotland that will recycle 2,000 metric tons per month of mixed plastic by shredding it and then breaking it down into petrochemical feedstock through what the company calls a "polymer cracking" process.

More recently, Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., has unveiled plans to construct a pilot plant to recycle PET containers that may be difficult to recycle within the current infrastructure due to its color or bonding with other types of materials.

Eastman’s new technology breaks the plastic down into its basic components, separates the unwanted materials, and then creates "a virgin material from a different raw material source for the production of economically competitive new packaging materials," according to an Eastman news release.

"We are developing a solution that enables us to regenerate raw materials from different sources into virgin packaging material with food contact approval," says Eastman director of global recycling Beat Zueger. "The new process will be an excellent solution for problematic plastic bottle compositions and will help ‘close the loop’ as we enable bottle-to-bottle recycling in an economical process."

A pilot plant is being established in Kingsport to fully test the new technology.

NO END TO END MARKETS?

There is no doubt that plastic continues to be used for an endless number of products eventually finding their way into the solid waste and recycling streams.

So—given the technological capability—can enough end markets be developed to support wider scale plastics recycling?

There are still plenty of skeptics who see plastic on a daily basis heading for the landfill. Fortunately, there are also companies pioneering newer ways of recycling plastic.

Trex Co., Winchester, Va., is a maker of plastic decking material that is made from a variety of materials, including recycled stretch film (or pallet wrap) and plastic shopping bags.

"Last year we bought almost 90 million pounds [of stretch wrap], and this year we’re going to purchase over 130 million pounds," says Michael R. Vatuna, Trex director of material sourcing. He helps procure the 15 to 18 truckloads of used pallet wrap and plastic shopping bags arriving daily at Trex’s Winchester production facility.

Demand for Trex products has been steady, and the company is opening a second production facility later this summer in Nevada.

Trex and Vatuna have tried to train retailers, warehouse operators and other suppliers to set aside their recyclable materials by maintaining a buying price for plastic wrap and bags, even if the market does not justify it. "We want people to know that there is a value in recycling," says Vatuna. "And if you place a value on the material, you get a better quality," he continues. "Stuff that’s free tends to turn into garbage. We’ve even turned down offers of free deliveries. It’s kind of an unusual approach, but it pays long-term dividends."

Like container recyclers, Vatuna’s biggest concern is procuring enough feedstock to keep Trex’s recycled content percentage high. "There is some concern about the infrastructure to get film collected," he says. "A billion pounds are produced each year, and we’re only going after a fraction of that. So we think there is a lot of room to grow."

He has been disheartened to see the recycling rate of plastic containers stagnate over the past few years, and fears it may lead people to conclude that plastic is not widely recycled. "It’s a sad commentary when you read the recycling rate for bottles is going down, because that was the bellwether for plastics," says Vatuna. "I’d like to see film and bags just match that."

Makers of plastic products that use the co-injection molding process are providing another growing end market. Co-Mack Technology, Vista, Calif., has been seeking out recyclable material to use as feedstock for a decade. "We find that co-injection is a good way to make use of recycled materials and we have touted the benefits of putting it in the core of a co-injection molding," says Co-Mack president Joseph McRoskey.

There are probably just a few dozen co-injection molders operating in North America currently, according to McRoskey, far fewer than the more prevalent injection molders.

But most co-injection molders are using scrap plastic, and McRoskey is optimistic that the process will grow in popularity. "I think recycling is really going to drive the use of co-injecting in the future," he says. "It’s a little more expensive equipment, but it gives you the cost benefit and the environmental benefit of using recycled material."

Product manufacturers are not being dragged kicking and screaming into using recycled plastic, although many still find recycled feedstock unsuitable for visible, exterior parts of a product. "One of the things that we run up against using recycled material on the outside or in a mono-layer is that we cannot get the cosmetic surface we need with a recycled material," says McRoskey.

In one product made by Co-Mack, the core was made with 100% recycled material while the "skin" contained just 10% to 20% blended recycled material.

Co-Mack, a contract manufacturer for companies such as Rain Bird sprinkler systems, offers a chance for virtually all of its clients to use recycled material. "We offer it up front," says McRoskey, "and some won’t consider it unless it has a positive price impact. We may give them two choices—with a virgin core and with recycled materials---and it is often that comparison that causes them to choose the recycled core."

Can co-injection molders become a growing consumer segment of scrap plastics?

It would certainly seem a positive development for plastic recycling advocates to see the co-injection process grow in popularity.

As it currently stands, the plastic recycling infrastructure still has a way to go to catch up with the decades-old industry in place for most metals. But the success of companies such as Trex and Co-Mack suggest that the demand is growing and that product manufacturers are beginning to realize the value of using recycled feedstock.

The author is editor of Recycling Today.