Plastopedia

Volvo Trucks is using polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin, made in part out of recycled plastic bottles, for the brackets of the side air deflection system in all seven models of its 2012 Volvo VN family of heavy trucks — the first time an upcycled material made from post-consumer recycled content has been used in a North American heavy truck, according to the resin manufacturer.


“The need to improve fuel efficiency and dramatically reduce weight is pushing truck manufacturers to find light-weighting solutions,” said Kenneth Miller, sustainability general manager for technology and innovation at SABIC Innovative Plastics, maker of the Valox iQ resins used by Volvo. “For example, some heavy truck manufacturers are trying to reduce their models’ weights from six tons to five tons.”

Retired U.S. currency and dandelions could find their way into Ford vehicle parts as rising costs of petroleum make it more expensive to manufacture plastics from scratch.

Ford is researching the use of recycled or biological materials in place of plastics. For instance, more than 3.6 million pounds of retired paper money are shredded daily and could be used to make plastics for interior trays and bins. Russian dandelions offer a possible alternative to synthetic rubber. Coconut and sugars can also make plastic alternatives.

The price of a barrel of oil has risen from about $17 in the early 2000s to nearly $104 last week, impacting more than just gasoline prices.

Automakers already use recycled denim to muffle noise in vehicles and plastic bottles to make interior carpets.

Coming up: Earnings season is under way. Ford reports first-quarter earnings on Friday.
Halftime ad is parodied again

Chrysler's "It's Halftime in America" Super Bowl commercial was the subject of another parody last week.

This time, NBC comedy show "30 Rock" poked fun at the grim, tough-talking Clint Eastwood.

In Chrysler's two-minute commercial, Eastwood says that in America, "We find a way through tough times, and if we can't find a way, then we will make one."

"30 Rock's" version uses actor Stacy Keach instead of Eastwood in an attempt to sell couches for the fictional company Kouchtown that has fallen on difficult times.

This story ran in PEPline, PepsiCo’s global employee newsletter, and is proudly brought to you by a PepsiCo employee or a friend or family member of a PepsiCo employee.

This Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day and marks the two-year anniversary of the PepsiCo Dream Machine recycling initiative. The initiative aims to provide Americans with convenient and rewarding recycling solutions to help increase the U.S. national beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018, and establish a closed-loop system to capture more recycled plastic for use in manufacturing new bottles. The national beverage container recycling rate currently stands at 40 percent, and is up six points since 2007.

To commemorate this milestone, the Dream Machine recycling initiative has released a progress report that shares cumulative results since launch. In the past two years, the program has made great strides in sustainability and now has a presence in 40 states. More than 150 businesses, universities and municipalities have signed on to host Dream Machines—a 305 percent increase in partnerships since 2010. Nearly 4,000 Dream Machine bins and kiosks have been deployed and 400,000 students at more than 900 U.S. K-12 schools are participating in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally. These efforts, and recycling efforts at PepsiCo industrial locations, have diverted nearly 94 million plastic bottles and aluminum cans from landfills.

In addition to the environmental progress the program has made, PepsiCo has donated $1 million to-date to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, an organization providing free entrepreneurship training to post-9/11 disabled U.S. veterans, and recyclers have earned millions of rewards points by recycling beverage containers in Dream Machine kiosks and through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally.

Source: http://www.pepsico.com

EuPR, the Brussels-based organisation representing Europe’s plastics recyclers, has developed new guidelines for HDPE bottles with the aim of increasing HDPE recycling.

According to Christian-Yves Crépet, EuPR HDPE working group chairman: “HDPE is a very easily recyclable material.” But only 300,000 tonnes of HDPE bottles are being recycled annually in Europe – just 10% to 15% of the total HDPE waste stream.

Volvo Trucks is using SABIC's Valox iQ polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin, made in part out of recycled plastic bottles, for the brackets of the side air deflection system in all seven models of its 2012 Volvo VN family of heavy trucks.

Although many other recycled plastics typically lose performance after undergoing successive melt histories, the upcycled Valox iQ resins have comparable or better performance than conventionally manufactured materials, including excellent resistance to impact, chemicals, and stress fatigue.

“Upcycling costs more and is harder to do technically,” Kenneth Miller, sustainability general manager for technology and innovation at SABIC Innovative Plastics, told us, at the NPE2012 show in Orlando, Fla. “The need to improve fuel efficiency and dramatically reduce weight is pushing truck manufacturers to find lightweighting solutions. For example, some heavy truck manufacturers are trying to reduce their models’ weights from six tons to five tons.” Volvo’s action is the first time an upcycled material made from post-consumer recycled content has been used in a North American heavy truck.

Industrial plastics recycler Grace Plastics Inc. is opening up a plant in Simpsonville, S.C., that will be its first recycling plant outside of its headquarters location of Batavia, Ohio.

“We are pretty much set up to grind and should be doing that sometime next week” after the electricity is hooked up, said Plastics President Harold Johnson in a phone interview April 18. “We just brought in four truckloads of scrap today.”

Johnson expects the plant will use a lot of mixed automotive plastics.

“I fully expect that within six months, we’ll be pushing out close to 1 million pounds of regrind a month at that plant”—which is what he said the company currently produces at its 60,000 square foot plant in Batavia.

Johnson said Grace just moved an existing grinder, shredder and air wash system into the 60,000 square foot building in Simpsonville that it plans to eventually fully occupy. “We set it up Monday and brought in some conveyors and other needed equipment on Tuesday,” he said.

The decision to open a plant in Greenville County made sense from both an economic and logistics standpoint, Johnson said. Grace was shipping 10 truckloads of material/ month—at a cost of $800 per truckload—from three customers in upstate North Carolina to its plant in Batavia, which has two shredder/grinder lines.

“We decided to expand about six months ago, and felt that if we were going to expand it should be in the upstate region of South Carolina” near existing customers, said Johnson. “We felt that it was a prime region to move into.”

“The South Carolina facility will give us the opportunity to reach new customers in the Southeast [and] grow our overall operations,” he said. We have a good potential of bringing on other companies in the area.”

A 12-strong European consortium has secured EU funding for the three-year SupercleanQ project, which, it is hoped, will add value to recycled plastics for food contact applications. The three-year project, called SuperCleanQ has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA - Research Executive Agency under grant agreement no.285889. The project results will accelerate the development of new recycling processes for the wider food contact materials market and provide quality assurance for converters and end-users of recycled products applications for food contact thereby overcoming barriers and expanding this high value recycling market. The project consists of a twelve-strong consortium that has secured €1,916,300 of EU funding to develop quality assurance tools and procedures for plastics recycling processes targeted at food contact applications. The tools will be applied to a new process for the recycling of coloured and layered PET into food contact applications that cannot be processed by current PET recycling facilities. The research will be used to develop a new process for the recycling of coloured and layered PET into food contact applications that cannot be processed by current PET recycling facilities. The project results are expected to accelerate the development of new recycling processes and provide quality assurance for converters and end-users of recycled products applications for food contact. This would then overcome barriers and expand a high value recycling market. The companies, who along with the EU will commit a total of €2.4 mln to the project, include Fraunhofer Institute, S+S Separation and Sorting Technology and Extricom from Germany; Smithers Rapra Technology, The University of Exeter and the British Plastics Federation from the UK; Dentis, Aliplast and Assocomaplast from Italy; MOS from the Netherlands; and EuPC and CEN from Belgium.

Erema North America Inc. shipped its show machine, a 1514 TVEplus recycling system, to Indiana film recycler Jadcore Corp. at the conclusion of NPE2012.

Both companies exhibited at NPE. This is Jadcore’s seventh recycling and repelletizing line -- but its first from Erema.

“It’ll handle more-contaminated and heavily printed films,” said Dean Doti, vice president of sales at Jadcore in Terre Haute, Ind.

Large amounts of Cardboard and Plastic rubbish are found in all areas of business. All organizations have a duty to dispose of their rubbish in the most environmentally friendly way. There have been many changes relating to the subject of rubbish in recent years. Key changes have occurred because of new Legislation, not only in UK, but also Europe and the whole world. Everyone is trying to help the planet and the environment and the consequence of this can be gratifying.

The most notable Legislation gives the duty of all businesses to take action to Sort, Segregate, Reuse and Recycle more. Each firm must demonstrate that they are doing this effectively. All organizations producing waste must Sort their rubbish. In other words, removing items which can be used again. These reusable items must be segregated or separated and removed from general rubbish, which would otherwise be sent to landfill. The recyclable waste must be stored in some way and eventually transported to a place where it can be returned to a reusable state.

The American River Natural History Association has partnered with the American Chemistry Council to offer recycling options to visitors at its Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, Calif. The initiative is part of ACC's "Plastics. Too Valuable to Waste. Recycle." campaign. "We welcome the American River Natural History Association to the partnership and invite other agencies, businesses and organizations to join us in our effort to preserve California's beauty, one recycle bin at a time," said Steve Russell, ACC's vice president for plastics.

Source: http://www.smartbrief.com

•  Plastic bags and wraps aren't typically recycled in curbside programs, but they are widely recycled through collection bins at grocery and retail stores.
•  Check your local grocer or retailer (e.g., Target, Lowe's) to see if they collect plastic bags and/or wraps. Most stores provide a bin at the entrance or sometimes at the checkout area.
•   If your program collects bags only, you can recycle any clean, dry, plastic carryout bag.
•   If your store collects a wider variety of "plastic film" or "plastic bags and wraps" -- as most do -- you can recycle the following: plastic carryout bags and sacks; dry cleaning bags; newspaper bags; bread bags; cereal box liners (the plastic bags that come inside the cardboard box); produce bags; sealable food storage bags (no food residue); shipping envelopes (remove paper labels and stickers); wraps from paper products (diapers, napkins, paper towels, bathroom tissue, and baby wipes); and case wrap from bulk snacks and beverages.
  
  
  

More than 90 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a plastic bag/film drop-off collection center or has access to curbside recycling for plastic bags, according to a new study conducted for the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council.

But that access “is not being used to its full potential,” according to the report, which was conducted by Moore Recycling Associates Inc. in Sonoma, Calif.

“This is largely due to a lack of education and outreach promoting film, wrap and bag recycling and very limited understanding about the connection between bag recycling and wrap and film recycling,” said the report, released April 12 by Washington-based ACC.

That misunderstanding isn’t just among consumers. It also extends to individuals who work at retail drop-off locations, according to the report.

Beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. has sued PET recycler Pure Tech Plastics LCC in a breach of contract dispute, claiming that two units of the beverage giant are owed more than $5 million.

Coke also asked the court to order Pure Tech to immediately turn over to it “the collateral” pledged as security for the debt. That could be the new food-grade PET recycling plant being built in Richmond, Ind., by Perpetual Recycling, which bought Pure Tech shortly after securing a line of revolving credit -- which is the center of the dispute -- from Coca-Cola Financial Corp. in October 2008.

The lawsuit, filed March 21 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, claims that Pure Tech has not paid the principal on $3 million loaned by Coca-Cola Financial as part of a two-year revolving credit agreement dated Oct. 14, 2008, and that Pure Tech also owes $1.99 million, plus interest, to Coca-Cola Recycling LLC.

The lawsuit listed as the defendant David Bender, as a registered agent for Pure Tech, based in Glencoe, Ill.

Bender is president and CEO of both Perpetual Recycling and the Chicago-based holding company, Re: Think Recycling Group LLC.

This past February, Perpetual announced that it will open a $30 million, 100,000-square-foot plant in Richmond, Ind., to make food-grade flake.

Rehrig Pacific Logistics (RPL), an innovative leader in reusable packaging services and solutions including asset management and exchange, reverse logistics and pooling, and recycling and sustainability services, today announced the opening of its newest reverse logistics and recyclable plastics processing center in Rancho Cucamonga, Cal.

The Rancho Cucamonga facility will process post-industrial, recyclable plastic and convert it into regrind material that can be reused in plastics manufacturing processes. Rehrig's recycling process can provide closed-loop recycling for a wide range of waste producers including large retail groups and local materials recovery facilities.

The facility will manufacture high-quality HDPE in melt indexes of 5, 8 or bottle-grade fractional in natural and mixed color as pellets or 3/8-inch flake.

Recycling research being conducted on behalf of the Stena Metall Group, headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden,  and Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg is focusing on ways to reduce waste and increase reuse.

The research has resulted from a professorship in industrial materials recycling that Stena Metall established with the university in 2007.

From left, Stena Metall’s Christer Forsgren and Christian Ekberg of Chalmers University.“The professorship comprises a number of projects in an array of areas that reflect society’s development: recycling of batteries from electric cars, plastics, new electronic products with rare metals and so on,” says Christer Forsgren, head of technology and environmental science at Stena Metall. “Our research ideas have generated several patent applications and garnered attention internationally. In addition to improved recycling, we are working to reduce the amount of waste produced and increase reuse.”

Study Shows More Than 95 Percent of Canadians Can Recycle Their Plastic Bottles and Most Other Rigid Plastics

In the newly updated Residential Recycling Access for Consumer Plastic Packaging, December 2011, prepared for the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) by CM Consulting, findings show that an increasing number of Canadians have access to recycling many different forms of plastic packaging, including nearly Country-wide access to plastic bottle recycling (95+%) and 91% access to recycling of household tubs and lids used for yogurt containers and other dairy products, up from 88% in 2009. The report also highlights access for PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) non-bottle rigid packaging (such as trays or bakery clamshells), which can now be recycled by 76% of Canadians, three percentage points more than in 2009.

The largest increase in access for a particular material noted in the report is for foamed polystyrene. Foamed polystyrene for food packaging is now recyclable by 32% of Canadians (an increase of seven percentage points since 2009) and access to recycling for expanded polystyrene protective packaging has more than doubled, increasing from 12% to 31%, in that same time frame. "We believe that recycling access for foam polystyrene has risen significantly due to advances in affordable technology which can compact the foam material, thereby reducing its volume and improve cost to ship to recyclers", said Cathy Cirko, Vice President of CPIA. Also of note, non foam polystyrene access is slightly higher compared to 2009 at 44%.

Access to recycling of plastic bags and other films is estimated at 56%. It is important to note that the report only measures access as having municipal or private curbside pick up of the material or a drop off depot where the material is accepted. Plastic bags are accepted at many retail locations across the county so the opportunity to recycle these is likely significantly higher than 56%.

First, Canada had its say about access to plastics recycling. Next up: the United States.

More than 91% of the U.S. population can recycle their plastic bags locally, and additionally, nearly 75% of people living in the U.S. can recycle other types of flexible plastic wraps in their own communities, according to a new study conducted by Moore Recycling Associates Inc.

The study, which looked at flexible polyethylene film, a category that includes flexible plastic bags, sacks and many product wraps, identified more than 15,000 drop-off locations that collect these items for recycling. The majority of collection centers are located in stores, frequently major grocery chains or retailers like Target and Lowe's home improvement stores.

This study is believed to be the first to examine consumers' access to recycle flexible plastic packaging. A separate study released earlier this year found that the recycling of flexible plastics increased 50% over the last five years to reach nearly 1 billion pounds annually in the U.S.

Among the numerous initiatives that have been taken to recycle plastic for further use and reduce the human carbon footprint around the world, one of the most worthy is transforming old, shredded plastic into polyester thread that may be used in clothing, upholstery, and many other purposes. The complex, multi-tiered process involves shredding the recycled plastic to remove unwanted liquid, bathing the plastics multiple times in corrosive material and mixing them together for ten hours, sending the mixture through a rotating screw at 270 degrees Celsius, and forcing the melted mixture into a sift to create the threads. The unrefined threads are then combined, stretched, torn, and bonded together multiple times to produce a uniform material that can be used for clothing.

While the recycling process shows great promise and potential in reducing waste, health and waste obligations also have to be taken into consideration since the toxic fumes and corrosive materials generated and used in the recycling process prove to be dangerous, if not potentially fatal to the workers who may get into contact with them. Apart from looking after the safety of the workers, areas for improvement also include filtering the potentially poisonous fumes created by melting the plastic at high temperatures to avoid contaminating the air.

Source: http://www.psfk.com

Canadian recycling rates for expanded polystyrene have jumped since 2009, according to a report issued by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association.

EPS protective packaging recyclability more than doubled from 12 percent in 2009 to 31 percent at the end of 2011. EPS food packaging recyclability grew 7 percentage points to 32 percent, CPIA of Mississauga, Ontario, reported on April 2.

“We believe that recycling access for foam polystyrene has risen significantly due to advances in affordable technology which can compact the foam material, thereby reducing its volume and improving the cost to ship to recyclers,” explained CPIA vice president Cathy Cirko in a news release.

The highest recycling rates in 2011, at more than 95 percent, occurred for plastic bottles. Yogurt containers and other dairy product containers were recyclable by 91 percent of Canadians, up from 88 percent in 2009. PET non-bottle rigid packaging such as trays and bakery clamshells, can be recycled by 76 percent of the population, up 3 percentage points from 2009.

City schools that recycled phone books and counted and turned in plastic caps from October through March for recycling will be recognized Tuesday morning by the city's Operation Green Team and Huntsville City Schools.

Five schools will receive awards for phone book recycling and 16 schools for plastic cap recycling during the ceremony at the Huntsville Administrative Building (City Hall), 308 Fountain Circle. The ceremony starts at 10 a.m. and will be attended by Mayor Tommy Battle and Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski.

A unique trophy showing what the caps are made into by KW Plastics will be one of the items schools recycling plastic caps receive.

source: http://blog.al.com