Erema North America hosts Discovery Day

Erema North America Inc., Ipswich, Massachusetts, has announced the continued growth of plastics recycling in the United States and Canada was one of several topics discussed at the company’s Discovery Day, held Sept. 26, 2017, at its Ipswich tech center.

This year marks the first time the company hosted a Discovery Day at its North American facility. The “Circular Economy in Action” program featured sessions on a range of topics as well as a keynote presentation by the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics). In addition, the more than 100 attendees had the opportunity to interact with equipment demonstrations.

“Erema’s Discovery Day has already become established in Europe and the company has now held one for the first time at Erema North America in Ipswich, Massachusetts, under the title Circular Economy in Action,” Erema says in a news release. “Over 100 customers and interested attendees were given an insight into the latest technical developments emerging at Erema and discussed the current upswing of recycling in the North American plastics industry. Four Eremea recycling systems demonstrated live in action that plastic ‘waste’ has long since advanced to a secondary raw material.”

Martin Baumann, vice president of sales at Erema North America, opened the Discovery Day 2017 event, saying, “Not only the recycling industry, the entire plastics industry as a whole is experiencing drastic change.”

Erema says Baumann’s statement corresponds with the remarks made by Patty Long, executive vice president of Plastics, who, as keynote speaker, elaborated on the increasing relevance of recycling in the North American plastics industry.

Long says, “Members of the entire plastics industry are calling for more sustainable management of plastics through innovation and the creation of products that are designed for recycling, from inception to end use.”

In order to tap the full potential of recycling in the best possible way, Erema says it relies on increased and stable recyclate production quality with its systems. There are more than 650 Erema systems in operation in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company.

Baumann adds, “There is one aspect, however, which sets the USA and Canada aside from other markets, and that is their enormous growth potential. The change of thinking in the industry will without doubt be intensified by China no longer being an international customer for postconsumer waste plastic. As, unlike waste plastic, high-quality recycled pellets can still be exported to China, this represents a great opportunity for plastics recycling in North America.”

Erema adds, “The focus of the technical presentations was above all on the recycling of clean production waste and postconsumer recycling. The filter system is crucial, especially when recycling municipal postconsumer waste, to process heavily contaminated plastic to make high-quality recycled pellets. In connection with this, the new Erema business unit POWERFIL was presented for the first time. The proven melt filters are now also available as individual components for existing extrusion plants.”

Erema North America Inc. is a subsidiary of Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H, Ansfelden, Austria.