July/August 1991
The recent RecyclingPlas conference examined the opportunities in plastic recycling, emphasizing the industry’s progress while acknowledging the challenges still ahead.
By Robert J. Garino
Robert J. Garino is director of commodities for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (Washington, D.C.).
What are the business opportunities in recycling plastics? That question was the focus of the sixth annual RecyclingPlas conference held in Washington, D.C., in late May. In addition to reviewing the commercial and technical considerations involved in recycling scrap plastics, the two-day event sponsored by the Plastics Institute of America (Fairfield, N.J.) charted the progress of postconsumer plastic recovery and examined the recycling of intermediate and engineering thermoplastics.
"Impressive Growth" in Postconsumer Recycling
Stanley Norwalk, director of commercial development for Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Co. Inc. (Danbury, Conn.), outlined the changes he expects in the recycling of postconsumer plastic in general and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles in particular. For emphasis, he included a chart showing the impressive growth rate in plastic bottle recycling between 1989 and 1990.
Norwalk also reviewed the principal players in the recycling chain-the public as scrap generators, the reclaimers, and the public as buyers of recycled plastic products. The public is the most powerful link in the recycling chain, he asserted, calling the public "the drivers behind the moves of the likes of Procter & Gamble, Lever Brothers, Wal-Mart, and others to support recycling and other green products and activities."
Norwalk noted that change pervades all aspects of plastic recycling and that many in the industry are making bets on the course of that change. "The road ahead will be littered with the bodies of those who guess wrong about technology, public responses, and government laws," he said. The changing nature of the field, however, will ultimately lead to a healthier and faster growing plastic recycling infrastructure, Norwalk observed.
Recycling Thermoplastics
Several speakers looked beyond postconsumer recycling to advances made in recycling intermediate and engineering thermoplastics as well as thermosets, especially those used in today's automobiles. Speakers assessed the potential for recycling the entire plastic portion of the automobile, from sophisticated composites to automobile shredder residue, or "fluff."
According to Arthur J. Stanley, manager of technical services for Trans Plastics Inc. (Conneaut, Ohio), sheet-molded composites (SMC), used in fenders, body panels, and lift gates, are "coming of age" and represent an enormous source of potential recyclable material, perhaps as much as 400 million pounds per year by 1995. The good news is that "SMC is recyclable," Stanley said, but the bad news is that, by 1995, 100 million pounds of SMC will be discarded--not recycled--annually. Thus, SMC is fast becoming a disposal problem that the scrap recycling industry views as a burden, and "rightly so," Stanley said.
To help processors deal with the growing availability of SMC scrap, Stanley provided a detailed analysis of how clean SMC can be reground and reused in automotive applications or other secondary markets. Pyrolysis may offer a solution-albeit an expensive one-for processing a mixed stream of SMC, including fluff, he noted. Stanley argued that both segregated and mixed composites from automobiles could be processed and marketed profitably.
William J. Farrissey, senior project manager for Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.), discussed recycling thermoset polyurethanes, which are used to make products such as flexible foam in car seats and represent a 3.3 billion pound market per year. Farrissey detailed several technologies that he believes are commercially available for recycling polyurethane reaction injection molded parts.
Solid Gold Opportunities
Martin Forman, president of Poly-Anna Plastic Products Inc. and Forman Metal Co., both in Milwaukee, discussed commercial opportunities in automotive plastics.
Detailing the expanding use of plastics in automobiles, he noted that in 1977 the average car contained 168 pounds of plastics, but by 1990 that amount had grown to 229 pounds-an increase of 36 percent. Less steel is being used in cars each year, Forman also pointed out, with plastics now accounting for nearly 9 percent of a car's weight--nearly double what it was only 13 years ago.
Automakers--especially Japanese manufacturers--have responded by telling, not asking, domestic resin producers to recycle their scrap, indicating that if a plastic won't be recycled, they won't use it, said Forman, who also chairs the plastic committee of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) (Washington, D.C.) and serves as president of ReMA's Wisconsin Chapter.
Scrap processors and recyclers have a twofold interest in seeing automotive plastics recycled, Forman said. First, auto shredder fluff, which can contain significant amounts of plastics, can pose a serious financial burden for processors, he observed. Roughly 25 percent of a shredded auto hulk is a "negative-value material" requiring disposal, Forman estimated.
Second, he said, engineered polymers in today's cars are valuable commodities. Some of these plastics may cost 30 to 35 cents per pound to collect and clean, but they can be sold for as much as $1.50 per pound, Forman said. This profit margin is much greater than that for the more common commodity-grade resins such as polyethylene. In fact, he noted, the postconsumer bottle market is currently "glutted," with selling prices only a few pennies above collection and cleaning costs.
To make automotive plastics more recyclable, design engineers and carmakers must adopt a design for disassembly mentality as well as ReMA's Design for Recycling ethic, Forman said. Otherwise, he cautioned, the cost of disposing of the nonrecyclable components could exceed the value of the recovered materials, bringing auto recycling to a halt.
Cars could be manufactured with clearly designated dismantling points, with whole sections identified by specific resin type for ease of separation, thus reducing commingling of resins, Forman said. This coding could also help identify parts used in auto repair and could thwart auto theft and dismantling by providing a tracking mechanism for each part.
Forman asserted that plastics in general have suffered as a result of their "perceived nonrecyclability." In reality, plastic scrap is "just another recyclable commodity, "a solid gold opportunity-not "another solid waste problem," he stated.
Furthermore, Forman asserted, plastic's market share will grow as a result of recycling, not shrink, as recycled resins displace virgin resins.•
Editor's note: The proceedings for RecyclingPlas 91, which include papers, graphs, tables, and flow charts from the conference speakers, are available for $75. Proceedings from the 1986 to 1990 conferences are available in a five-volume set for $195. Contact the Plastics Institute of America, 277 Fairfield Road, Suite 100, Fairfield, NJ 07004-1932; 201/808-5950, 201/808-5953 (fax).
The recent RecyclingPlas conference examined the opportunities in plastic recycling, emphasizing the industry’s progress while acknowledging the challenges still ahead.