Issue 213 2022-03-09 Author : POLYSTAR MACHINERY CO., LTD. Souscrire

Plastic Recycling Continues to Grow Worldwide

New Regulations for High Recycled Content

The packaging film sector (stretch film, CPP film and etc.) and plastic bag producers are required to use a much higher percentage of recycled pellets in the end products. For better quality control and to maximize the reusability back into the film extrusion lines, more producers have decided to recycle all the production waste internally instead of outsourcing it.

New regulations in many countries now require producers to use a higher percentage of recycled content in flexible and rigid packaging products. Instability of raw material prices and supplies also forces plastic producers to better recycle their own production waste.

Post-industrial Recycling – Higher Quality Requirement

Reusability of the recycled pellets has become more important than ever for plastic producers who recycle and reprocess their in-house waste. Packaging film and woven bag producers now require higher quality recycling (minimal material degradation) in order to reduce production cost as much as possible.

In India, the requirement of more advanced recycling machines is rising, especially for PP raffia, woven bags and FIBC producers who need to process their internal waste. 75 Repro-One recycling machines have been installed in this sector alone in India.

The Repro-One recycling technology is a combination of shredder, extruder and pelletizer into one machine. This one-step, powerful (shredder) yet gentle (low processing temperature) process produce the best possible pellets quality at the lowest operation cost, enabling the producers to reuse all of the pellets back in PP tape extrusion lines.

Bigger Recycling Machines in Need

Plastic recycling machines are getting bigger. Recyclers are now buying larger-capacity machines and more machines. The 800-1,000 kg/hour pelletizing extruders has become a standard for post-consumer and even some post-industrial recyclers.

A Japanese post-consumer recycling company located in Kanagawa just placed an order of four 800-1,000 kg/hour machines from POLYSTAR all at once in December 2021. In the same month, several recyclers in Australia, Colombia, Mexico, Russia and the US have also repeated their orders with multiple higher-capacity machines to be able to comply with the increasing recycling demand of washed PE film and bottle waste.

Short Machine Delivery Time

The impact of COVID-19 continues to present many challenges, resulting in high shipping cost and shortage of supply.

As the demand for recycling machines remains strong, POLYSTAR continues to prepare in-stock recycling machines to avoid long delivery time.

With the new (third) facility, we have been able to better serve our customers with faster machine delivery time and in-time spare parts support, keeping a large number of critical machine components in-stock.

Our manufacturing facility in Taiwan, Sinji industrial park continues to operate at 100% during this time, making sure our customers receive the recycling machines within a very short time. The delivery time for standard recycling machines such as Repro-Flex 85, Repro-One and Repro-Air is only 30 – 45 days.