25. Leobener Kunststoff-Kolloquium 2016 159 Trends in mechanical recycling of thermoplastics K. Ragaert Sustainable Use and Recycling of Polymers and Composites PMT - Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Ghent University Technologiepark 915 9052 Ghent, Belgium | Abstract Ofall recycling strategies for solid plastic waste, mechanical recycling is still the most prevalent. Industry-scale recycling facilities have long since moved past merely pro- cessing sorted PET bottles into r-PET. Today, both post-industrial and post-consum- er waste streams are processed in a wide range, going from relatively pure mono- materials to heavily mixed or even contaminated plastics. Such advances are facili tated by improved collection schemes and ever-daveloping technologies for washing, sorting and (re-) processing. Just as well, they are forcibly driven by legislation and market demands. This paper hightights some of the recent advances in mechanical recycling of thermoplastic polymers for the benefit of the industry, both in terms of drivers (legislation, market) and facilitators (new and advancing technologies). Introduction The most ubiquitous method for the recycling of solid plastic waste is mechanical re- | cycling, in which the plastic is collected, sorted, washed and grinded into small flakes [1]. This regrind can be used as secondary raw material, either ‘as is’ or after re-ex- trusion into pellets. The further development of the mechanical recycling sector is subject to many extemal factors, which can generally be divided between drivers, which push the industry forwards to reach higher and more efficient recycling rates, I and facilitators, which are (mostly) technological enablers allowing the industry to ef- j fectively comply with these demands for higher recycling rates. This principle is sche- matically illustrated in Figure 1.25. Leobener Kunststoff-Kolloquium 2016 _ 160 Ea sa Figure 1: actors on the evolution of (mechanical) recycling of solid plastic waste The main drivers for increased mechanical recycling are (EU) legislation and the market itself. Circular economy and reduction of (plastic) waste are high priorities for the European Union, which results in ever stricter legislation such as complete landfill bans, extanded producer responsibility (EPR) and specific recycling targets (2). For post-industrial waste, mechanical recycling can be quite straightforward, as the waste is often composed of a single (well-known) polymer and little to no pollution oc- curs [3]. Post-consumer waste, however, is far more complex in nature. The materi- als are often polluted by organic waste or contaminated with non-polymer materiais, multiple polymers are usually collected in one batch and there is a variation in all of this between batches [4]. These factors make it nigh impossible to identify the exact composition of post-consumer secondary plastic materials and have an additional negative effect on the polymer quality, on top of the thermo-mechanicat degradation, which will occur with every reprocessing step of thermoplastics. For example, it is a well-known phenomenon that different polymers do not mix in the melt phase, even if they are as similar to one another as polyethylene and polypropylene [5]. This phase segregation during processing will lead to reduced mechanical properties, toughness foremost among them [6]. Therefore, the fechnofogical facilitators of improved me- chanical recycling of plastics can be identified in three main fields, namely sorting, processing and design: i. Avoid mixed plastics as a secondary material resource by improving sorting technology, leading to more (quantity) and purer (quality) mono-streams; ii. For those streams that are unavoidably mixed (e.g. multilayer packaging ma- terials), increase their resource efficiency by improving processing techniques 25, Leobener Kunststoff-Kalloquium 2016 161 Design from Recycling: matchmaking between recycled materials and (new) product applications, Drivers for increased mechanical recycling rates Legislation coming from the European Commission is the most forcible driver in the European industry's need to achieve higher recycling rates of plastics. Out of broader environmental concems, actions that save virgin materials and reduce both waste and emissions are typically first identified, then encouraged and eventually made obligatory. ‘There was the release of Ecodesign directive some years ago [7], encouraging pro- duct designers to consider the repairability, upgradability, durability, and recyclabitity of products by developing relevant product requirements for different product groups. In the latest Circular Economy Package (CEP) [8), released December 2015, the European Commission announces that it has ‘developed and will propose shortly to Member States mandatory product design and marking requirements to make it easi- er and safer to dismantle, reuse and recycle electronic displays’. The new CEP atso includes an announcement of the revisal of the Proposal on Waste, meant to pro- mote industriat symbiosis (waste or by-products of one industry become inputs for another). This revisal will include (the approach of) landfill bans, higher recycling tar- gets ~ specifically for packaging industry ~ an more (or fiercer) EPR schemes [8, 9]. However, it's not all ‘push’ when it comes to legislation, some important ‘pull aspects exist as well, the foremost of which being Green Public Procurement. In many EU member states, public procurement (representing 20% of the EU's GDP) will (or al- ready does) include an important ‘green’ aspect, e.g. the amount of recycled content in purchased products. Additionally, the Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2016- 2017 will include funding of over €650 million for research and development in the topic of ‘Industry 2020 in the circular economy’ This in tum, is meant to generate more technological facilitators for the increased recycling targets. Addlionally, the market in itself can be an excellent driver for more recycling as well. In their recently released report, ‘the new plastics economy — rethinking the future of plastics’ [9], the Ellen MacArthur Foundation propose the creation of an effective af-25. Leobener Kunststoff-Kolloquium 2016 162 ter-use plastics economy as a main stratagem to promote increased recycling rates of (packaging) polymers. They argue that by creating this market, more material will be captured, resource productivity will increase and an economical incentive will be provided to avoid ‘leakage’ of post-consumer plastics into the environment. Addition- ally, increased recycling rates will contribute to the decoupling plastics industry from. fossil feedstock. Recent studies indicate that in Europe alone, over 50% of plastic packaging could be recycled eco-efficiently with today's available technologies [10]. All that remains is to convince (local) governments and companies to capture these opportunities. Facilitators for increased mechanical recycling rates Obtaining high-quality polymer waste streams, as much as possible composed of a single uncontaminated polymer, starts with sorting technology. This field ts confinu- ously moving towards better, newer and more precise sorting technologies [11} Typical providers of cutting-edge optical sorting technology include: © Sesotec (Germany) a participant in the EU project Polymark, in which a food- approved, removable, fluorescent marker is developed for the differentiation between food contact and non-food contact PET [12]. This marker is observ- able with near infrared (NIR); ‘« Tomra (Germany): have recently released onto the market a near infrared (NIR) sorting technology that can handle plastic flakes as small as 2mm, dif- ferentiating simultaneously between polymer type and colour [13]. Non-optical separation techniques which are currently gaining ground include tribo- electric separation and froth flotation [14, 15]. From cleaned and sorted waste, it is conventional to go to a granulation step before final (re-)processing into a product. Two leading technology developers in this field are both located in Austria (Next Generation Recycling and Erema). They develop technologies that combine a (optional) final sorting step with grinding, filtration and regranulation of the thermoplastic feedstock into one modular production mactine 25. Leobener Kunststoff-Kolloquium 2016 163 In some products, the composing polymers simply cannot be separated [16]. The leading example in this is multi-layer packaging waste, which typically includes a combination of PET with PE, PP and/or EVOH. Converters have no choice but to Process the material as a mix, which poses difficulties caused by the immiscibility of the composing polymers. Recent advances in technology to improve the properties of ‘such mixed polymer waste inctude the use of compatibilizing agents (which increase the miscibility) as additives [17, 18] or the development of specific microstructure by adapted processing. An example of the latter is the development of microfibrillar ‘composites, in which a technical polymer like PET is used as a strengthening fibre in a more ductile matrix like PP {19, 20). A final facilitator is adapted dasign strategies for (recycled) polymer products, Design for Recycling is a well-known strategy in which new products are developed so that they can be recycled at their end-of-life. It entails easy separation of different mater- als and an all-round efficient material use. The strategy is part of a virgin material's start-of-life. Design fram Recycling is an altogether different approach, even though the two do not exclude one another. In Design from Recycling, the secondary raw material originating from the recycled polymer (r-polymer) waste of a previous prod- uct’s end-of-life is the starting point of new product development. These materials are aften quite complex (mixed plastics, contaminations...) and not so straightforward to use efficiently. Design from Recycling involves identifying the r-polymer's strengths and weaknesses through extensive characterization, as well as identifying accepl- able strategies for possible upgrading of the material quality where necessary. During the stage of product design, these characteristics are taken into account and matches are found between (new) products and r-polymers suitable for producing them. Concluding remarks The (industrial) mechanical recycling of thermoplastic waste continues to develop. It is at the same time pushed forward by important drivers like legislation and market and pulled along by technological facilitators like improved sorting, improved repro- cessing and adapted design strategies.25. Leobener Kunststoff-Kolloquium 2016 164 Acknowledgements This analysis was made in the context of collaborative funding project (IWT-TETRA 150151} ‘Design from Recycling’. References M1 fl 3] 4 [6) 3) 1] ALSalom, S.M, P. Lettieri, and J. 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