Every day we dispose plastics, such as packaging, disposables and plastic containing electronics. Today, 75% of all polyester produced in the world (70 billion kilograms per year) is still not recycled. One of the reasons: the discarded PET contains colors or other additives. As a result, the presence of those colors and additives create difficulties to upcycle the polyester into safe and new high-quality polymers. However, more and more Brand Owners have the desire to use safe and upcycled polymers in their consumer products. Therefore, we believe a truly value chain approach is needed to develop the right recycled polymers to close the recycling loop for many more consumer products.
SPIC recycling technologies to create high-quality recycled polymers
SPIC offers a wide range of recycling technologies, particularly for polyesters, such as:
- Mechanical recycling and melt-filtration
- Solid State Polymerization (SSP)
- Compounding
During mechanical recycling the sorted polyesters are melted. During melting, the impurities in the melt are removed as much as possible by means of melt-filtration. However, melt-filtration does not remove all colors, additives or other impurities. In other words, mechanically recycled polyester does not show similar properties like virgin polyester made from crude oil. But polyester can be further upcycled by means of Solid-State Polymerization (SSP). This step is mostly executed after the mechanical recycling. SSP processes take place at high temperatures and under vacuum conditions. The reactive groups in the polyester extend the polymer chains. By extending the polymer chains the intrinsic viscosity and properties will be boosted. In addition, the SSP technology can yield very pure recycled polyesters that even meet EFSA food contact regulations.
Interested how we could help you with your product development?
Do you need recycled polymers for your consumer end-product? SPIC can help you. Contact us to assess your business opportunities! Or click on Technologies or Analyses to get more info.