Postconsumer resin

Containers made from at least 25 percent postconsumer resin... 

Ecothene HOPE containing 28 % postconsumer resin Quantum Chem. Corp. 

Post-industrial recycled plastics occur in most plastic products, wherein the plastics from the sprues runners, extrudate, etc. are added back into the virgin plastic at the plastic manufacturing plant. Postconsumer resin (PCR) refers to plastics that were made into products, for example, bottles, bags, film, packaging, used by a consumer, collected by a waste disposal company, processed into recycled pellets at an MRF, where the recycled plastic parts are converted into recycled plastic pellets. The plastic pellets are then sold to plastic companies. 

Franklin Associates (2010). Final Report. Life cycle inventory of 100% postconsumer HOPE and PET recycled resin from postconsumer containers and packaging. 

Contaminants in recycled plastic packaging waste (HDPE, PP) were identified by MAE followed by GC-MS analysis [290]. Fragrance and flavour constituents from first usage were detected. Recycled material also contained aliphatic hydrocarbons, branched alkanes and alkenes, which are also found in virgin resins at similar concentration levels. Moreover, aromatic hydrocarbons, probably derived from additives, were found. Postconsumer PET was also analysed by Soxhlet extraction and GC-MS most of the extracted compounds (30) were thermally degraded products of additives and polymers, whereas only a few derived from the original contents... 

Similarly, Dow has entered into a joint venture agreement with Dom-tar of Canada to operate what the companies hope will be by 1990 a self-sustaining PET and HDPE recycling business. The North American company is expected to take postconsumer plastics and, using a proprietary Dow process, convert them into resins for use in Domtar s manufacturing or to be sold by Dow. 

In most cases, before attempts are made to recycle plastic resins, the used parts must first go through a series of sorting processes. The purpose of these sorting processes is to separate the desired recycle plastic from possible contaminants in the incoming stream. These contaminants can take many forms. They include dirt, paper, glue, and metal as well as other recyclable plastics and even the same desired plastic but of a different color. The most postconsumer recycled plastic today is PET. This is the plastic from which all plastic soft drink beverage bottles are made. 

Most end-use markets of recycled plastics require that they be separated by resin type and color. For postconsumer bottles, all lids, caps, and closures should also be removed because they are often of different colors, and made of different resins than the bottle. The goal of any sorting process is to obtain the highest purity, consistency, and quantity of a particular consumer resin type. This ensures the highest end-use value for new products incorporating substantial amounts of the recycled resin. 

Though numerous types of plastics materials are presently used for automotive applications, future vehicles will probably use fewer resin variables. This consolidation trend is well underway and is a result of postconsumer recycling requirements (see Ghapter 6), which increasingly emphasize the use of only a few families of materials. Auto manufacturers will rely primarily on four key resin families for their plastics applications polyolefins, polyamides, polyurethanes, and styrenics. The future use of PVC for automotive applications is uncertain due to pressure of environmental groups who assert that the resin contaminates automotive shredder residue with chlorine. 

Table 14.10 Technologies Developed for Rapid Identification of Postconsumer Plastics by Resin Type [10]...

Growing popularity of plastics as a material is reflected in the exponential growth of its global production volume (see Fig. 4.2) over its short history as a commercially available material. 280 million metric tons of plastic resin was manufactured globally in 2012, and the annual trend is for this to continue into the future. Thermoplastic resins make up over 90% of this production. Thermoplastics is a general term used for plastics that can be softened into a viscous liquid melt by heating and can therefore be remolded again into the same or a different shape. (This is why postconsumer thermoplastics can be readily recycled into other products.)... 

Tfie first U.S. approval for use of mecfianically recycled PET in direct contact with food came in 1994, for Johnson Controls (later Amcor s) SuperCycle recycled PET. Amcor cnrrently operates a PET recycling facility in Beaune, France, with a capacity of 15,000 tons per year. About 75 percent of prodnction is food-grade SuperCycle resin, and the rest is nonfood-grade NuCycle. Other companies subsequently also obtained FDA approval. For example, in 1996, WeUman received an FDA letter of nonobjection for their EcoClear resin made from 10 percent recycled PET from postconsumer bottles. ... 

The Canadian Polystyrene Recycling Association (CPRA), with a plant in Mississauga, ON, accepts polystyrene from all over Canada. Over 95 percent of its revenue comes from the sale of recycled resins, mostly black high-impact polystyrene (HIPS). The remainder comes from member companies, representing manufacturers, distributors, and end users of polystyrene products. The plant, which has a capacity of 5000 tonnes of PS per year, accepts both food-service PS and cushioning materials. While it uses mostly postconsumer materials as feedstock, it also accepts obsolete PS materials from manufacturers, such as scrap from sign manufacturing. ... 

Wellman, Inc. of JohnsonvUle, SC, recycles nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 carpet, using a proprietary process, and formulates the product into moldable engineered nylon resins, with both filled and unfilled grades. Welhnan received the CARE Recycler of the Year Award in 2005 for its developments in recycling nylon into automotive parts. Their EcoLon resin contains 25 percent postconsumer carpet.° ... 

In 1992, IBM became the first major computer maker to code plastic parts for ease in identification for recycling. In 1999, IBM reported that 675,000 pounds of PVC, ABS, and PC/ABS resins recovered from old computers were reused in its products in 1998. Nearly aU the internal plastic parts in IBM PCs were reported to have recycled content at about this time. The company s 2004 server brochure says that IBM uses recycled content resin into systems where technically possible and that several internal resin parts such as stiffeners, clips, and fillers use resin with pre- or postconsumer recycled content. ... 

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