Japan-based Polyplastics Group, a global supplier of engineering thermoplastics, has launched a new initiative for recycling engineering plastics.
Dubbed Duracircle, the initiative applies to a wide variety of sustainable solutions that contribute toward achieving a 100 per cent recycling rate for engineering plastics, without being confined to the existing business model of manufacturing and selling plastics. Polyplastics’ goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
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Phase one of the sustainability initiative consists of the opening of Polyplastics’ new Duracircle Re-compounding Service business, which will offer high-quality mechanically recycled materials by March 2024. Mechanical recycling involves melting plastic waste and processing it back into pellets for reuse.
The Duracircle Re-compounding Service is a departure from conventional recycling in that it aims to perform horizontal recycling – that is the recycling of products into the same products – which is considered difficult with engineering plastics since they need to maintain a high quality across subsequent uses.
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It’s anticipated that the raw materials will be pre-consumer materials such as hot runners and non-conforming products that arise during manufacturing processes before products reach consumers (also referred to as post-industrial recycling materials) with manufacturing histories that can be traced and pose no concerns of contamination from environmentally hazardous substances.
In addition to expanding Duracircle to markets outside of Japan, Polyplastics plans to develop and offer recycling technologies for post-consumer recycled materials, which are even more difficult to reprocess. As environmental needs evolve, Polyplastics is developing future solutions for mechanical recycling, chemical recycling and biogenic carbon cycles.