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RECYCLING

Recycling Update: It’s in the Bag! ecycled plastic film, whether post- consumer grocery bags or coin- R mercial waste like greenhouse

covers, traditionally aims at low-value applications like plastic lumber or ex- ports to Latin America and the Far East for cleaning and pelletizing. Some of that material returns to the U.S. for bag fab- rication in states like California, where recycling is mandated.

Of course, there have been excep tions, such as Webster Industries, Peabody, Mass., which has been re- cycling industrial film into trash bags for years (see PT, May ’90, p . 120). Now, however. a bunch of new plants plan to convert gen- erally low-value post- consumer-reclaim

e r value film and bags.

This recycling requires a big stretch in terms of quality control, additives and process technology because thin-film grades must be top quality. “We don’t want to have to make thin films thicker just to accommodate recycling,’’ says Tom Tomaszek, president of North American Plastics Recycling Cop. in Fort Edward, N.Y., a new IiJm recy- cler.

Blowing film with PCK is tricky, since the least impu- rity makes a hole or black speck. Recy- cling post-consumer film is also tricky be- cause ground film has so much lower bulk density than bottle flake and cor- respondingly lower throughputs. A stan- dard 2000-lb/hr bot- tle recycling line

(PCR) film into high-

might run only a half or two-thirds as much filni fluff, with under-l-mil films the hardest to process.

Collection infrastructure for post- consumer films exists today as a by- product of curbside collection which generate piles of empty bags. Super- markets and dry cleaners also have in- store collection bins. In addition to film recycling news, new bottle recycling ventures that also target high-end mar- kets including bags, plan to showcase

new “clean-idclean-out” systems that decontaminate bottles before grinding.

FROM BAGS TO RICHES. . . Up to now, only one domestic

company has been known to grind, wash and process mixed PCR films back into T-shirt bags on a commercial scale. That’s one-year-old Rhino-X Industries, Victoria, Texas, in which a controlling interest was bought in June by Boston- based Carlisle Plastics Inc. Some bag

collection efforts by bag makers also re-

Million Intended End-Use Key Site Ib/yr Feedstock Start-up Product Hardware

Embrace Systems Angola, N.Y. 5 PET, HDPE Sept. ‘91 Puffibre Automated Technologies Bottles Insulation h3dindin

cyZe material into bags, but the con- version is labor-in- tensive and small. Rhino-X uses grind- ing and washing equipment from Sorema in Italy with 20 million lb/yr ca- pacity and earlier announced plans to boost film recycling to about 60 million lb/yr.

Now three new film recycling plants are starting, two this month: Petoskey Plastics Inc. in Petoskey, Mich., and North Ameri- can Plastics Recy- cling Corp. (see PT, Jan. ’91, p . 99). A third, South Eastern Recycling Inc., Tus- caloosa, Ala., starts up by yearend.

Petoskey has the first US-dedi- cated thin-film re- cycling line from Fabbrica Bonde- nese Macchine Srl in Italy, says FBMs U.S. agent, Con- verting Systems In- ternational, Naples, Fla. (In Canada: F B M / F u t u r e America, Bramp- ton, Ontario, a joint venture with Fu- ture Design Inc. of Brampton.) llie $3-

PLASTICS TECHNOlOGY i i OCTOBER 199 i 87

.

merchandise bags. (CIRCLE 49) South Eastern Recycling expects to

start up the first Refrakt film recvclina 1

RECYCLING

million project includes a washing sys- tem and is backed up with continuous melt filtration in the extruder to remove grass, sawdust, paper, etc. Incompatible resins like PET and PS are also said to be removable in the melt. (CIRCLE 47) Petoskey, a Q-1 supplier to Ford Motor

Co., reportedly will offer full statistical process control of its PCR-containing film resins.

North American Plastics' operation includes the first film-washing unit in the US . from Weiss GmbH of Dillen- berg, Germany. Weiss' system cleans

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line in ihe US. by year-end. Refrakt is; German technology development com- bining Herbold granulators with a new high-speed, high-agitation washing unit from B & B (Braun and Buzga) that o p erates like a turbine mill. Refrakt also uses unconventional two-stage drying, mechanical and thermal, a series of tubes spiraling within a heated cham- ber. (CIRCLE 50)

AND BOlTLES TO BAGS. . . Envirothene Inc., Chino, Calif., has

been running the first turnkey recycling system from John Brown Inc., Plastic Recycling Systems, Providence, RI., for over six months now (see PT, Feb. '91, p . 96), and in "August achieved stated output levels. We did well," says Envi- rothene president Jason Stanton.

About 20% of Envirothene's HDPE bottle recycle is earmarked for sister company Plasco Press in Azusa, Calif., for a trademarked bag product called "Bottlesack." Envirothene also licenses other bag companies to use its propri- etary film process based on a blend of 30% PCR milk-jug HDPE with virgin HMW-HDPE. Envirothene's HDPE re- cycle is graded for whiteness, impuri- ties and' melt index with only the highest grade used for film manufacture. Inter- mediate-quality material can be coex- truded as the center layer of a three-layer bottle. The lowest grade is reserved for injection molding waste- baskets and other housewares-al- though some injection molding customers reportedly want highest film- quality grades. (CIRCLE 51)

High-quality film resin containing PCR carries a premium of 6-7C/lb over virgin HDPE. 'We try not to sell to the drainage pipe market because it's a much lower price base," Stanton says.

Envirothene has successfully pro- totyped a proprietary post-consumer film-waste reclaiming line, which it in- tends to build next year. The prototype achieved 2000 lb/hr throughput with mixed postconsumer film, Stanton says. (CIRCLE 52)

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88 PIASTKS TECHNOIOGY 11 OCTORFR 1991

RECYCLING

THINKING BIG Italian recycling machinery from Gov- oni Spa that’s so automated it’s said to The scale of the 200-million-lb/yr

ner, International Food Machinery, Richmond. The Govoni line automati-

joint venture announced by Sonoco Products Co., Hartsville, S.C., and At- lanta-based Mindis Recycling Inc. is daunting (PT, Aug. ’91, p . 104). But Mindis industrial engineer Rick Jacobs says the first two HDPE bottle recycling lines “could be up and running Jan. 1.” A few months later, he expects to bring on the remaining two PET bottle lines and one film reclaiming line. Mindis’ parent firm, Attwoods PLC of the U.K., has 30 trash collection sites in the South- east (including Miami, Fla.) and a 400,000-household MRF in Atlanta next to the planned recycling plant in an 8 5 acre former General Motors site. Mindis says it has stockpiled millions of pounds of postconsumer film and bottles.

The first two dedicated HDPE lines are ordered and will consist of bale breakers, conveyors with visual inspec- tion, and a series of two 32 x 50 in. grinders from Cumberland Engineering Div. of John Brown in Cumberland, R1.-with 1-in. and 3/&in. screens. Flake then goes through elutriators from Ster- ling Blower Co., Forest, Va., to remove fines and debris; then to a sink/float tank from M.A. Industries, Peachtree City, Ga., to separate HDPE from PET flake, on to a proprietary scrubbing unit, d e scribed as “standard mining industry technology,” then through dryers from Walton/Stout Inc., Lithonia, Ga., and past metal separators from Carpco Inc., Jacksonville, Ma. Mindis’ Jacobs says each line will have a throughput of 8000 l b h r except the film line, rated at 25W 3000 lb/hr. (CIRCLE 53)

Like Envirothene/Plasco, Sono- co/Mindis is vertically integrated to supply PCR for higher-value packag- ing products. Roughly 50% of Sono- co/Mindis’ PCR output is expected to be absorbed eventually by Sonoco gro- cery sacks.

‘ZERO CONTAMINATION’ Tko interesting ventures also start-

ing up this month take a different route to upgrading recycled material from the influential Rutgers University prototype. Whereas Rutgers’ Center for Plastics Recycling Research in New Brunswick, N.J., grinds separated plastics before proceeding to decontamination, these new automated lines remove bottle con- taminants before grinding.

Enviroplast, a start-up recycler in Richmond, Va., will be a showcase for

need-only one operator. ‘We intend to demonstrate close to ‘zero-contamina- tion’ processing,” says Dr. Willy Broich, chairman of Enviroplast, a joint ven- ture of Broich and Govoni’s US. part-

cally identifies and separates PVC with a patented electromagnetic beam, then automatically sorts colors in a cascade in front of an optical sensor, separating

Continued on p. 9 3 , . .

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PLASTICS TECHNOGGY 1-1 OCTOBER 199 1 89

Iontinued from p. 89 . . . :olored from natural HDPE and pig- nented from clear PET. Mixed-color ‘IDPE and PVC will be baled and sold. [CIRCLE 54)

The second super-clean line is for PET bottles, starting this month at Embrace Systems Technologies Inc., hgola , N.Y. Embrace, which will use the clean flake for its proprietary Puffi- bre insulation, has the first ARC 7200 system from Automated Recycling Corp., div. of Aidlin Automation Corp. of Sarasota, Fla. (PT, Dee. ’89, p. 89). ARC 7200 transfers postconsumer PET bottles by their injection molded neck rings, conveying them through the de- contamination process with air jets, as in basecup application. PVC and HDPE bottles are eliminated from the PCR stream because they can’t be support- ed by their necks. Aluminum caps are slit diagonally and swept off bottle tops with brushes. Bottles are then filled with hot water to relax bottle orienta- tion, causing them to shrink, releasing

lasecups and paper labels, which are vashed off with pressurized hot water. rhis hot-water bath (filtered and qeused) is the only cleaning agent, says WC engineer Steve Alley. (CIRCLE 55)

NEW COLOR SEPARATION EnviroPlastics Corp., a four-

partner bott le recycling start-up venture in Auburn , Mass. , with seed money from Occidental Chem- ical Corp. in Houston, expects to use a proprietary color-separation system developed by one of its part- ners . Par tner Franco Previd h a s patents on an optical scanning pro- cess to sort whole bottles, says op- e ra t ions v.p. Bruce Fort in . T h e group also has proprietary wastew- ater technology. John Brown Inc. will supply a system that includes two parallel washing units. These will allow the line to switch back and forth between types of HDPE

-Jan H. Schu (CIRCLE 58) i-I i

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