Document Ev1zY07v2YM7E2ve2GEwpe2bx

I' l i e Vitiyf hist Effective reclamation and reuse techniques are emerging to meet the challenge posed by tougher dispos ability standards. They could also dissipate suspicions that have hampered PVC growth in some markets THE 1990s are shaping up as an age of garbage glut and diminishing landfills. In such an era, materials choices in packaging, and indeed in all landfillbound end-uses, are increasingly going to depend on more than just cost and performance. Processors and suppliers of polyvinyl chloride are going to have to con vince end-us ers--and the nation's regulators and lawmakers--that PVC is suited for dis posal when a product's useful life ends. One controversial aspect of this issue is vinyl's impact when fed into an in cinerator. Even more pressing (due to the top billing accorded to recycling in the hierarchy of waste disposal goals adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) is vinyl's viability in reuse. PVC, long subject to attack on grounds of safety and health, now con fronts the challenge of meeting ever- tougher disposal standards. "Vinyl can be safely disposed of by any currently proposed waste manage ment method--recycling, landfill or in cineration," declares Roy Gottesman, executive director of the Vinyl Insti tute, a division of the Society of the Plastics Industry. A recent ruling by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration suggests that some of the nation's regu lators have yet to be convinced. The FDA case involves a petition seeking ap proval for PVC use in liquor bottles. Last November, FDA responded by ordering its staff to prepare an environ mental impact statement covering many aspects of pvc's role in solid waste. One doubt cited by FDA con cerns pvc's efficacy in reuse; the agen cy has plied its investigators with questions covering the current methods and scope of pvc recycling, possible emissions of hydrochloric acid during pvc incineration and even recycling, and the effects that the adoption of vi nyl might have on reuse programs for other materials. The FDA move permits all current PVC uses to continue, but postpones a final decision on PVC use in liquor bottles for perhaps as long as five years. FDA also cited research that it says shows possible links between the burn ing of PVC and a recognized health threat: increased emission of dioxins and furans. In response, industry sources insist that vinyl is as safe when incinerated under proper combustion conditions as is any other plastic or competitive material. They point to re search purported to substantiate this claim (Sep 87 MP, 12). FDA's decision leaves a cloud over Pvc's future as a packaging material. The industry's fate rests in part on its ability to gain political recognition of its safety record in incinerators. From a pragmatic view, its success in getting a viable post-consumer recycling pro- CTL016220 Modem Plastics. Marcii 1989 69 TT gram off the ground could counter much criticism. Should current efforts in both spheres fail, then angry citi zens, draconian regulations, and ad verse decisions by PVC's major end-us ers could threaten a slowdown, or even decline, in existing markets as well as dim prospects in such emerging mar kets as the water bottle. Competitors are anticipating PVC's dilemma. In a recent speech, Himont Inc.'s CEO, Alexander J. Giacco, inter preted new regulatory shifts in Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany as indicating that those nations view the polyolefins as the "environmentally clean" large-volume plastics. This shift favors material substitutions away from pvc and polystyrene and in favor of polypropylene over the next few years, in Giacco's view (see p. 10). Part of the solution? "pvc, a thermoplastic, is an eminently recyclable material," Gottesman says, voicing industry optimism about the potential for pvc recycling. The prac tice of post-consumer pvc reuse, how ever, is in its infancy. The little that is recycled in the U.S. goes into mixed, or commingled, scrap plastics where, in the view of some, it can be a nuisance. Spokesmen for BFGoodrich's Geon Vinyl Div., a major PVC supplier, note some of the ironies in pve's portrayal by environmentalists as "bete noire" in the solid waste crisis. One is vinyl's tru ly minuscule contribution to the munic ipal waste stream. In 1987, all poly mers contributed just over 7% by weight to the 160-million-ton total mu nicipal solid waste (MSW) in the U.S. Since pvc accounts for 12% of total U.S. resin production, it would appear to represent about 1% of the total load. In fact, PVC's role is relatively small in short-lived packaging and rela tively greater in durable goods that stay out of the waste stream longer. BFGoodrich sources estimate that pvc actually contributes no more than 0.2 to 0.3% to the landfill-bound MSW. Don Knechtges, BFGoodrich's vinyl marketing director, suggests also that the existing pvc market structure is perfectly suited for recycling. Vinyl markets form a pyramid in which a RECLAIMED VINYL FINDS A UTILITARIAN SECOND LIFE Existing reuse outlets for PVC pre- and post-con sumer regrind are nonspecified drainage pipe (extruded by TBA Inc.) and molded floor tile grids (designed by Turtle Plas tics). In numerous other existing markets, such as PVC fences (PVC com pound supplied by BFGoodrich), there is considerable potential for reuse. narrow apex of short-life, demanding, higher-cost materials (bottles, film, win dow profiles and blister packs) sit atop a broad base of long-life, less demand ing, lower-cost markets (including drainage pipe, conduit, and a host of smaller applications). The most logical recycling scenario calls for a simple "cascade" of reuse from higher-end, first-use to lower-end aftermarkets. A leading engineering resins supplier, General Electric Plastics, was first to theorize such a system. Critics claim GE's proposed low-end uses are cur rently little more than hypothetical. In contrast, Knechtges notes the existing structure of PVC markets lends itself well to recycling. Chuck Gruber, market manager for Rohm & Haas, supplier of additives for pvc, describes vinyl as one of the most versatile of materials. He says PVC is rarely used neat; formulation gives vi nyl its utility. Since its inception 50 years ago, compounders and processors have perfected this art. "The pvc in dustry can draw on a broad base of knowhow and a wide ar ray of additives of all types for use in doctoring polymer in myriad ways," Gruber says. While PVC's "additives feast" is clearly an advan tage in some cases, in oth ers it creates problems. An example is the use of lead-based additives by some makers of wireand-cable jacketing. Con cerns about lead's safety in the environment make the notion of regrinding materials containing it problematic. Another heavy metal, cadmium, is used in certain stabilizers and pigments for PVC and other plastics. According to a recent EPA report, 8661 tons of lead stabilizer were used in the U.S. in 1986 (200 tons of which was thought to have entered MSW) and 711 tons of cadmium (with 500 tons going to land fill). Much of this was in plastics use, especially PVC. A soon-to-be-published SPI report is said to show that plastics use of these metals plays a minor role in the overall problem. Progress is being made in solving problems associated with the use of heavy metals in PVC. The European pvc industry has already developed and is using alternatives to cadmium. A push to replace it in additives for Pvc is under way in the U.S. Lead use is a more intractable prob lem because no effective substitutes for its use in wire-and-cable have appeared as yet. An apparently fruitful ap- 70 Modern Plastics. March 1989 CTL016221 'G /* 1*V.,` " / t ' - . ` > it * - , ,i.`i -./J-A'V,. '.A .'" ./'.?>', '..' ptoach, however, is that of Reclaimers, Inc. Kendallsville, IN, one of about 100 | Sampler of U.S. efforts to recycle landfill-bound PVC ,, copper reclaimers operating in the U.S. This company employs a mechanical system that removes copper from vinyl Company/location Role* Materials source6 Remarks and other plastics used in wire jacket ing. Vinyl is cleaned to 99.6% purity and rerouted by the firm for use in sheet and molding applications. - AIM Packaging,' . Port Clinton, OH ;. -'v/: Source of. ; }` -L merchant;. scrap. ' > ,, ' '* 2 Sends bottles for which ` label choice precludes Internal recycBng to x makers of drainage pipe \';f: and of molded packaging'- Stirrings of success for auto windshields.' D'Lane Wisner, BFGoodrich's Geon vinyl marketing manager, packaging, suggests that the Pvc industry has al ready mastered many technical aspects of the challenges of recycling clean re grind via the internal reuse operations employed in many vinyl market seg ments. In pipe, extruded film and blow molding, for example, the great major ity of internally generated scrap is looped back into production. Efforts to reclaim large pockets of contaminated, pre-consumer waste not reusable in internal operations have been only partly successful. This source APV.tnc., South Plainfield, NJ Machinery builder Cleveland Reclaim/ , . Turtle Plastics, - Cleveland, OH Compounder, reclaimer, processor Plascal, Inc., Farmingdale, MA Reclaimer, processor 1.2,3,4, 7 3 Plans to introduce cascade extruder designed to handle light, hard-toprocess scrap PVC and other materials. Claims to have pioneered ' ' reclaim of contaminated auto rub strips for reuse in urinal screens, floor mats, , handles. Latest products-- auto traction pads and. \ wheel chocks. Reprocesses tailings of virgin-only calenders for use by heat sealers in low-end book and check totals at least 400 million lb. annually, covers, infant seats, and industry estimates are that about ladies' handbags. three-fourths of it currently goes to landfill. Although this is less than 5% of all the pvc used in the U.S., it is a significant flow. The remainder of this contaminated vinyl stream feeds a sur prisingly virile PVC reuse industry. The dream of one participant, Tom Norton, president of Turtle Plastics, Cleveland, OH, is to find a useful outlet for every last pound of it. Norton estimates that some 70-80 million lb. of contaminated PVC is cop per-contaminated wire-and-cable scrap. At least 100 million lb. more is auto motive scrap; another 15 million lb. is protective auto rub stripping. By Nor ; Plastic Compounders, Inc., Compounder . ' . Haverhill, MA Recoverable Resources (R2B2), Bronx, NY Reclaimer TBA, Inc., '-' ' - Louisville, KY Processor ': ' .1 '-"-I* , - 1 6 1,2,4, 7 1,2,3,4 Compounds copper-free `transition' scrap -/ engendered in wire-,- '.. coating operations oritoll/;*- basis for reuse in low-' ' voltage cords and molded r-' insert plugs. ` ' . PVC reclaim routes: blister packs to aquarium tubing; auto strips to floor mats; pool liners to urinal screens. Draws on bottle, credit;'/.>7- card, blister pack, cfrcuh VO boardcarrier feedstock I to produce non-NSF-/,/-; drainpipe.^/' :;yvr- :-- / ' ton's estimate, the calendering industry yields an additional 70 million lb. The following examples further illustrate TH International, New York, NY Exporter 1,2,3, 4,5,6 Purchases reclaimable vinyl for export to Pacific Rim. some of the strengths (and limits) of existing pvc recycling efforts. -- Drainage pipe. Vermont Republic Vermont Republic Industries, Inc., St. Albans, VT Reclaimer 1.2,3,4 Reprocesses extruded circuit board holders and other scrap for drainage ---; Industries (VRI), St. Albans, vt, cleans tile. ,v v/r-xjV. and regrinds landfill-bound pvc from several sources. One is a nearby factory Reclaimers, Inc., Kendallsville, IN Reclaimer 5 Uses mechanical recovery method to yield 99 6% that discards PVC devices used to ship copper-free vinyl for sale computer chips. Trim is also generated by an adjacent Eveready Battery Co. into sheet and molding applications. plant that displays its flashlights in pvc clamshell blister-packs. A third source a In uvs column reclaimer refer* to a company that separates deans and regnrxJs scrap but does noi repefietize or corrpound d is Aim Packaging, Pt. Clinton, OH, a pvc blow molder, which seeks an aftermarket for bottle rejects contaminated b PVC /edam sources classified as foAows 1 a*bSKte-coflected scrap. 2 ore-consumer bottles 3 pre-consumer calendered film or sheet 4 post-user eilruded profiles (siding packaging) 5 post-consumer copper bearing wire andcawedaddmg, 6 industrial copper-free wire and caWe daddmg. 7 decorative and protective automobile Stripping | by paper labels. VRI routes these feedstocks to TBA Foundation codes require that regrind the additives-rich regrind pvc material Inc., Louisville, KY, a pvc drainage be used only in the specific plant and is used in letdown as concentrate to pipe extruder. There, the regrind is fed formulation in which it was originally make pipe that is tougher than virgin into 600-lb./hr. extruders that make 6- used. Regrind, however, is useable in pipe by virtue of a high impact modifi in.-diameter pipe designed for a 50-year large segments of the drain pipe market er content. underground work life. Pipe is nonspe- that often do not require NSF and other IIConsumer items. The U.S. auto in cified, as current National Sanitation approvals. TBA's vp. Tom Brooks says dustry uses about 150 million lb. of - t f a t i & ' . ' i - . - V-jCi, CTL016222 Modern Plastics. March 1989 71 pvc annually as protective stripping to which adhesive and decorative film is applied as profile exits the extruder. Given a 10% downstream scrap rate, this produces about 15 million lb. of contaminated Pvc that was, until four years ago, landfill-bound. Today, Tur tle Plastics cleans, regrinds and molds it into various useful items. The major established application is a floor tile used in light trucks and workshops. C Aquarium tubing. Recoverable Re sources Inc. (R2B2), Bronx, NY, aims to tap independent pickup networks as a way to revive industry and create jobs in some of New York's most dete riorated neighborhoods. One of its suc cesses involves a local firm that pack ages hardware items in calendered PVC blister packs that generate large vol umes of trim. This had previously been sent at high cost to a landfill, but a year ago the landfill operators declined to take it any more. Now, R2B2 sepa rates, cleans and sells it to a local pro cessor who in turn extrudes the materi al into aquarium tubing. T Post-consumer recycling. The items best suited to getting the reuse of curb side-collected pvc under way are bot tles, which use some 230 million lb. of PVC annually in the U.S. Obstacles are that the bottles go into diverse endmarkets (shampoo, vegetable and salad oil, creamer, peanut butter, water); the rate of turnover of bottles in PVC mar kets tends to be low; and none are easi ly recognized by the public (as are the clear PET soda bottle and the translu cent HDPE milk jug). Industry leaders are finding new ways to reuse pvc bottles. To this end, a consortium of six major pvc bottle compounders and additive suppliers has been set up. Efforts by individual companies, including Rohm & Haas, Oxychem, GeorgiaGulf Corp. and BFGoodrich are also under way. BFGoodnch is testing the properties of Pvc re grind. Research shows that additivesrich PVC bottle com pounds retain suffi cient properties to be viable in such aftermarkets as nonfood bottles, pipe fittings, and drainage pipe. And work is being done to improve vinyl labels as a way of fos tering reuse. An important step forward in separating curbside-collected pvc bottles is the adoption by SPl in mid-1988 of a volun tary recycling code. One of the first U.S. blow molders to adopt the code, which involves a mold change to in clude the letters PVC and numeral 3 in side a reuse logo, is Schoeneck Con tainers, Inc., New Berlin, wi. "I like the idea that the bottle we make today could end up as a fencepost, pipe, or possibly even a welcome mat tomor row," remarks Bill Smith, president. A more radical approach (and one that is likely to affect U.S. recycling in the next few years) is being taken by a Eu ropean joint venture project. The oper ation, formed by three West European resin suppliers, has a plant in Ferrara, Italy, that employs an electromagnetic scanning technique, tradenamed Technoplast, to identify and separate poly ethylene terephthalate from pvc bottles automatically. The 10,000-lb./day facil ity reuses pvc in tubing and pipe. "The greatest potential for post-con sumer PVC bottle reuse is in the noncarbonated water bottle market," re marks Bill Carroll, Jr., technology director at Occidental Chemical Corp., a pvc supplier. He says prospects for pvc capturing a big share of this mar ket are excellent, due to vinyl's clarity, low-cost, and the low odor and taste transfer of recent compound offerings. "It's the perfect candidate for recy cling," adds Richard LaRue, Oxychem's market development manager for water bottles. He says PVC water bottles are distinctive. They are, more over, unpigmented, and the mode of their use probably means that little or no washing will be required. Experience in France, where the pvc bottle dominates the estimated 100-mil- lion-lb. bottled water market, demon strates that efficient recycling of PVC water bottles is practical. Solvay, a leading Belgian Pvc supplier, reports that nation's PVC bottle reuse system a success. The reclaimed powder is used by some end-users in the foamed innerlayer of drain pipe. PVC regrind also is used to make vine stakes and (in gran ular form) as a soil reinforcer. Prospects for pvc reuse are also be ing pursued in siding and window-pro file markets. The Vinyl Institute recent ly signed a contract with Vermont Republic Industries to identify recover able pvc sources in this and other mar kets. BFGoodrich suggests that a trend in siding (to coextrusion of a weatherable, additives-rich cap over a lowercost, low-additives-package substrate) could lend itself well to reclaimed ma terial use in substrates. Turtle's Norton sees considerable potential in buyback of profile regrind from construction in dustry networks. Performance of PVC in commingled waste recycling is another area of inter est. Current practitioners are Polymer Products, Iowa Falls, 1A (using a pro prietary system), and New England CRInc., N. Bellerica, MA, Process Plas tics, Ionia, MI, and The Center for Plastics Recycling at Rutgers Universi ty, NJ (which use the licensed ET1 sys tem). These turn commingled waste into plastic lumber. Experimental work on pvc in com mingled waste is being conducted at the center by Dr. Tom Nosker. In a first step, PET and HDPE milk bottles are removed from the stream, leaving a mixture that includes PVC. Nosker says the goal is to determine how different polymer mixtures affect properties of the residual stream. He claims research has shown no evidence of problems as sociated with pvc use in commingled streams. However, the presence of pvc and PS, which have lower melt tem peratures than other large-volume res ins, means the ET1 process must be run at temperatures low enough to pre vent offgassing or degradation. CTL016223 Modern Plastics, March 1989 73