Document e7ew7pQMaEn15QQY8yd3NY4Xg

Pubic Ulorks City, County and State February, 1991 Vinyl Recycling-- Often Asked Questions ROY GOTTESMAN Executive Director, The Vinyl Institute, Wayne, New Jersey AS our nation struggles with the ever-pressing municipal solid waste disposal problem, attention has recently turned to recycling plastic packaging containers. Although the weight of plastic materials in the mu AUTOMATED plastics sorting. This device using gamma ray fluorescence nicipal solid waste stream is only 7 or 8 percent, they do occupy a significant to detect and separate vinyl bottles from other rigid plastic containers was developed by the Center for Plastics Recycling Research at Rutgers. volume, even when crushed. With less land area available for landfills and con adequate. This involves workers at a rial, can lead to serious problems in fa cern over groundwater contamination, sorting line identifying vinyl containers bricating products from recycled mate other options are being sought. by their clarity and characteristic blow rials. Vinyl plastics, also known as poly vinyl chloride or PVC, are desirable molding scar, which resembles a smile. PET containers, which are the only Automatic Sorting Devices packaging materials in that they can be principal clear container that could be As a result, recent work has aimed at produced as transparent packaging and confused with vinyl, have a "bullet dot" developing automatic sorting systems. can be manufactured with a molded-in molding scar. More recently, The Soci A commercial processor using an auto handle. They are used to package many ety of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) matic system will produce homogenous different products including bottled established a voluntary coding program products, the end result will promote water, mouthw'ash, hair shampoo, in w-hich plastics are identified by a re increased recycling of post-consumer household detergents, and window cycling code--a number and letters re \inyl materials. Short-term vinyl prod cleaners. lating to the material's composition. ucts such as packaging materials will be As vinyl bottles are used in numerous This coding system has now been converted into many long-term, second applications, the container's shape and adopted by 27 states and will be re generation uses. This will help reduce size can vary widely. This is in marked quired on all packaging sold in those the demand for landfill space. contrast to the well-recognized, 1-gal states. Because vinyl is only a small segment high-density polyethylene (HDPE) jug However, manual sorting, using vi of the solid wraste stream (between 0.3 used for water or milk, or even the 2- sual inspection techniques, is at best, to 0.5 percent), it has not received high liter beverage containers made of poly only about 90 percent effective. The priority in plastic recycling programs. ethylene terepthalate (PET). reasons for this are the speed at which That, coupled with the many types of Manual Sorting sorting must be conducted and fatigue on the part of workers. The presence of vinyl containers that need to be sorted, did not lend itself to easy collection. Initially, it was believed that manual small quantities of another plastic in vi However, that appears to be changing ly sorting plastic containers would be nyl, or vinyl in some other plastic mate as more communities move to total R&S150287 plastics collection programs. There are several questions that are frequently asked about vinyl recvelimr. Can rin ifI scrap hr recycled? Yes. Since vinyl is a thermoplastic material, there is no processing barrier to its ef fective recycling. For example, scrap produced in pipe, siding, sheet manu facture, and blowmolding plants has been ground and recycled back into the original process for many years. Can post-consumer vinyl packaging materials be recycled? Experience has shown that post-consumer waste, i.e., rigid bottles and blister packaging can be recycled. This requires separating and sorting materials from other plas tics followed by clean-up, grinding, de tergent washing, melt filtering, and drying. To date, it has not been proven technically feasible to recycle flexible vinyl film, such as used in meat pack ing. Incineration or landfilling remain the best disposal methods for this type of product. Does the SPI code on the bottom, of plastic containers indicate the relative recyclability of different plastics? No. It has been erroneously stated that the numbers appearing on the coding sys tem indicate the ease with which a ma terial can be recycled. In actuality, the codes only indicate the material from which the bottles are made and this is for sorting purposes only. In this sys tem, vinyl containers are marked with the number "3" and the letter "V." Numbers are used because they are rel atively quick to identify and read and are distinguishable from any manufac turer's markings. Is vinyl packaging being reclaimed commercially today? Although vinyl reclamation is in its infancy relative to other plastics recycling (e.g., PET soda bottles and HDPE milk jugs), several companies and municipalities are al ready engaged in vinyl reclamation. Some obtain PVC directly, such as R2B2 and Wheaton Plastics. Some lo calities collect the entire plastics bottle 'tream (Somerset County. New Jersey and Anaheim. California) and subse quently sort the vinyl manually. Others receive PVC inadvertently m HDPE and PET volleetion programs. Manual ly sorting PVC from other containers, however, is still the rule. Automatic sorting devices though, are expected to replace manual work for large volume collectors and reeyclers within a year. What automatic sorting devices mill be commercially available? In the U.S., two devices are expected to make their commercial appearance in 1991. The first is based on gamma ray flu orescence to detect and separate vinyl bottles from others in a highly automat ed rigid container sorting line. It was developed by the Center For Plastics Recycling Research (CPRR) at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. New Jersey. The second system uses electromagnetic radiation to identify the chlorine atom and thereby separate vinyl from an undifferentiated solid waste stream. It was developed by Na tional Recovery Technologies, Nash ville, Tennessee. A commercial proto type will be in operation early in 1991. Additionally, several companies are developing sorting technology for ground, mixed plastic materials. One example is the Herbolt Refakt method, using hot belt separation. Is it necessary to separate vinylfrom other plastic recycling processes? De pending on the desired end product, separating vinyl from other plastic ma terials may not be necessary. For high quality extrusion or blowmolding pro cesses the recycled vinyl should be pure. However, with the growing trend toward composite packaging material, commingled or mixed plastics will al ways be part of the waste stream. Based on research carried out at Rutgers' CPRR, such materials can be processed into synthetic lumber. The process employs a technology devel oped by Advanced Recycling Technol ogy in Belgium, Superwood in Ireland. and Recvcloplast in West Germany. Po tential applications for commingled products include thick gauge extru sions or molded products, such as fenc ing, landscape architecture, traffic bar riers. parking lot stops, picnic tables, and benches. Does PVC degrade in the commin gled recycling process? Since PVC is stabilized in its original form after re covery from a recycling operation, more stabilizer may be needed to boost the processing latitude of the commin gled material. However, some studies have shown that as much as 10 to 25 percent of the commingled plastic can be recycled vinyl without the need for additional stabilizer. What are the applications for recy cled PVC? A recent study completed by the University of Toledo indicates that recycled PVC could be used in building and construction products. These in clude downspouts, fencing and corrals, hand rails, house siding, sewer pipe, septic systems, telephone cables, and window frames. Other potential uses include floor and machinery mats and refuse containers. The study also indi cates that recycled vinyl could be used for fabricating bottles for household chemicals, flower pot covers, bud vases, garden hose cores, office acces sories, stadium bleacher covers, and truck bed liners. Moreover, the study shows that there exists a potential de mand for recycled PVC that is far greater than the supply of vinyl bottles presently being manufactured. While plastic recycling is still in its infancy, tremendous progress has been made in only a few years. As markets are developed and we gain more experi ence and knowledge, plastics recycling will become a normal part of solid waste management. Further information relating to vinyl plas tics in recycling can be obtained from The Vinyl Institute. Wayne Interchange Plaza II. 155 Route 46 West, Wavne. New Jersey 07470. R&S 150288 A Division of The Society of The Plastics Industry, Inc. R&S150289 November 12, 1990 l Entire contents copyright 1990 by Crain Communications Inc Alf r.ghts reserved Crain's International Newspaper for the Plastics Industry SI .00 per copy NRT process sorts PVC from other plastics Vinyl Institute lauds effort in recycling By Adam Lashinsky PLASTICS NEWS STAFF Washing11in --'[ fit' Vinyl Institute and National Recovery Technolo gies Inc. last mouth unveiled a process they claim will Ihrust I'VO recycling into the modern era. NRT, a private rec vet ini' tech nology concern in Nashville. Temi.. developed the vinyl separa tion process with about $-1()l),()(J0 in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Vinyl Insti tute and Reprise Ltd., a Stockport, England, joint venture between Britain's PVC Group pic and Euro pean Vinyls Corp. of Brussels, Bel gium. In an Oct. HI news Briefing at the National Press Club, the vinyls group and NRT also announced (hat XI. Disposal Corp , a subur ban Chicago waste management linn, would house the proprietary sorting process beginning in ttie lirst tew months of !!I!U "Were taking a disposable product and converting it to a du rable. Tliese products will not end up in the waste stream for many years," said Vinyl Institute Execu tive Director Roy Gottesman, cit ing figures that PVC accounts lor less than one-fifth of I percent of disposed plastic packaging. "Essentially, the NRT technolo gy moves vinyl one step closer to being a full player in the solid waste management process." Got tesman said. Edward Sommer, NRT executive vice president and technical direc tor, said lie anticipates his compa ny's sorting unit would cost $]()(),0(II!-$1HI),0(11) (or high-volume users The company s device separales PVC from other waste by identify ing the chlorine atom in vinyl dis posables and ejecting the PVC over a harrier with a hurst o( air, leaving other plastics --most often high density polyethylene and PET --to flow down a conveyor belt to separate recycling areas. Reporters and industry officials at the briefing watched the pro cess on a videotape, but as part of the Vinyl Institute's agreement with NRT. interested parties will he able to view the process at XL's Crest wood. Ill , facility Begun in 1981, NRT first got in volved m vinyl separation by win ning a $51).000 Small Business In novation Research grant from the EPA m 1988. A year later it grabbed a second-pba.se. $150,1X10 award and simultaneously was ap proached by the vinyl industry group to develop its technology. Under their agreement, the Vi nyl Institute can place NRT's dem onstrator processing unit where it chooses for two years. NRTs Sommer said the 18-entployee company had doubled in size in the last year and is moving to a new facility in Nashville, hav ing outgrown its old one. He de clined to discuss the private (inn's sales figures. XL [Disposal currenlly houses NRTs mainline sorting process, which separates numerous recyclahles. In addition, Sommer said NRT is building a unit (or Adding ton Resources Inc. o( Ashland, Ky, Larry Thomas, president o( the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.-- of which the Vinyl Institute is a division--praised NRT's "inte grated approach." Speaking after the briefing, Tho mas said that Sommer and his col league's "have really advanced 1 be cause of recycling." Alt example of NRT's integrated approach will be Reprise Ltd.'s fa cility in F.iigtand. The British site already sorts numerous waste items and is set to incorporate the new technology to screen out PVC Repr^^Hwith permission. National Recovery Technologies Inc. has a new PVC sorting method tl:.. identities chlorine atoms in PVC and ejects the containers over a divi i u onto a separate conveyor with a burst of air. in January. "We re waiting to bolt on the NRI application," said Duncan Makin, managing director at PVC Group, one ol the joint venture's parent companies The Vinyl Institute's Gottesman cited figures from a recent Univer sity of I oledo study that ........... i for recycled vinyl could reach l'"i million pounds a year. Given that about 200 mill:. -' i pounds currently exists in lh<waste stream, demand for rn \ cled PVC could outstrip supple. Gottesman said. ingToday From Sortation to Marketing, the Vinyl Loop Gets Stronger A new recycling recruit has been found for the parade of plastics. Although it's not yet quite time to step off, that parade is destined to make itself heard. s the search for solid-waste solutions continues, the push to collect and recycle plastics grows. The latest recycling recruit is a mater ial that composes less than 1 percent of the solid-waste stream: polyvinyl chloride, the world's second-largest sell ing thermo-plastic. Post-consumer pol yethylene, the world's largest-selling thermo-plastic, is recycled from PET and HDPE bottles and containers. Vinyl is now recycled in commingled plastics -- for use in wood-substitute lumber, picnic tables and park benches -- because it is difficult to sort from a mixed post-consumer plastics stream. Industrially, the vinyl scrap produced in pipe manufacture or bottle blowing has been recycled for years. The scrap is ground and recycled into the same products from which it came. Virgin PVC is used commercially in food, drug and pharmaceutical packag ing because it produces a high gloss, glass-like clarity and bright color. It is used in both rigid plastic containers and clear film wrap. Ongoing research by Occidental Chemical has demonstrated the abili ty to produce a high-quality, generic vinyl product from recycled vinyl pack aging. However, this research is in its infancy, and the economics of recycling vinyl are not yet quantifiable. Though the industry has been mar keting vinyl as a recyclable material, potential recyclers are ironing out the wrinkles -- sorting it from the waste stream and finding substantial markets. While large quantities of HDPE and PET containers are easily identified and collected, vinyl containers are not. Handsorters have difficulty disting uishing the variety of barbecue sauce, peanut butter, bottled water, mouth wash, dishwashing liquid, window cleaner and other rigid-vinvl packages. PLANNING STAGE. One firm on the cut ting edge of solving the problem is Na tional Recovery Technologies. The Nashville-based manufacturer of muni cipal-waste processing systems plans to introduce a prototype automated PVC sorter by the end of the year. The electromagnetic scanner would identify and help remove rigid, post-consumer vinyl containers from a mixed-plastics waste stream. Rigid vinyl containers contribute an estimated 240 million pounds, or 0.2 percont, annually to the solid-waste stream. "Theoretically you could reclaim (all of the vinyl) and it could be every bit as good as virgin material," said Roy Gottesman, executive director of the Vinyl Institute. However, it is not eco nomically feasible to collect, separate and clean products like the flexible, cle;m film used to package meat and fruit, he added. Rigid vinyl containers are economical to clean, grind and recy cle into a generic vinyl product such as the foam in foam core pipe. Automated sortation technology, ac cording to Gottesman, would recover at least 50 percent ofrigid post-consum er containers, or up to 0.1 percent of the solid-waste stream. Thus, 120 mil lion pounds previously destined for landfills would be recycled as pipe, win dow frames, truck-bed liners, flower pots and more. The institute has joined the En vironmental Protection Agency in spon soring NRT's research to develop vinylsortation technology. NO HANDS. `This new project will enable plastics-waste processors to separate (rigid vinyl containers) from other plastics in the waste stream with out having to employ labor-intensive hand sortation that relies on container coding or container shape," said Got tesman. While an automated sortation line is under development, hand sorters rely on the subtle, voluntary Society of the Plastics Industry coding or on common, identifiable package shapes. The SPI code is molded into the container and features the letters PVC and a number 3 inside a reuse logo. Ed Sommer, executive vice president and director of research for NRT, said the new sortation technology is based on electromagnetic scanning like that introduced in Europe five years ago. E xisting E uropean technology is ex pensive for A merican waste processors. The Italian and Belgian companies which cooperatively introduced mech anical sortation and separation are sell ing the only complete material-re covery facilities, said Gottesman. Charles Boos, president of NRT, pre dicted his company's system will be cost-effective to integrate into existing Repnnu.d with permission of Recycling Todat magazine, Man n 1990 R&S 150290 sortation lines, many of which his company manu factured. NRT has work ed with cities such as Chicago, New York and Miami to establish sorta tion sytems for municipal solid waste. "Our initial incentive was to remove vinyl be fore incineration," said Sommer. Burning vinyl was held responsible for the corrosion of incinera tors and thoughtto create hazardous by-products such as dioxin. In 19b7, the Vinyl In stitute co-sponsored a study conducted by the New York State Energy Research and Devel opment Authority, which revealed that the pres ence or absence of vinyl in municipal-waste in cinerators has no effect on incinerator production of dioxin. Gottesman said incineration is a safe op tion in disposing of the PVC plastic. However, the Institute says public opposition to incineration and a grow ing interest in recycling have spurred research in to recovering vinyl for recycling. THE MARKETS. "Because ofthe number of applications in which vinyl is used -- and the number ofpotential applica tions for recycled vinyl--we expect that demand will exist for recycled vinyl once steady sources ofsupply are estab lished," said Sommer. The institute is concurrently funding and supporting programs to complete the integration of vinyl into the recycl ing process. In 1989, it began working with Vermont Republic Industries to identify potential markets, and has worked with the Center for Plastics Re cycling Research at Rutgers Universi ty on commingling programs. In Europe, recycled PVC bottles are made into profile extrusions -- window frames, for example -- and coextrude foam core pipe In the United State they have been used in truck-bed linei and flower pots as well as foamcore pipe Other applications are beingdeveloped. Occidental Chemical, a major sup plier of vinyl resin, is breaking ground with a new national buy-back offering for PVC. "Recycling, in general, does not succeed unless economically vi able," said William Carroll, director of commercial development. He predict ed, "The market for recycled resins will be good." Carroll said non-food packaging is a possible reuse for vinyl. In January, Oc cidental planned to grind and wash the post-consumer vinyl it had collected for further testing. Research and development is a Catch-22. Occidental needs a ready sup ply of recyclable vinyl products to re search applications and develop mar kets. The post-consumer vinyl supply is limited because markets have not been a. eloped and collection is slow. Occidental hopes to stimulate the sup ply with a buy-back schedule similar to that for PET plastics -- 6 cents per pound for mixed colors and clears, and 8 cents for true colors. B.F. Goodrich, which has an 18-20 per cent share of the vinyl market, is also researching uses for post-consumer vinyl. "Once we've learned the ABCs of re-processing, we will take it to our customers who could use it as a feed- R & S 150291 to pipes and drain tile. "We've never had any trouble finding a market (for the reground vinyl)," said Albin Voegele, presi dent of Vermont Republic Industries. The St. Al bans, Vt.-based company supplies recyclable com mercial vinyl to proc essors in the United States and Canada. In 1989, the company clean ed and returned 1 million pounds of reusable ma terial to the marketplace, and processed 350,000 million pounds for re cycling. "Once the sortation is in place, we could easily handle post-consumer PVC," said Voegele. When sortation technol ogy becomes part of the separation line, Vermont Republic Industries would process and bale the rigid, post-consumer vinyl containers collected by municipalities and sell the plastics to companies such as Occidental Chem ical. (Barney Tkxel) Occidental is one of about a dozen companies in the United States that stock and show them how it could be manufactures the PVC resin used in done," said D'Lane Wisner, seniormar packaging and construction applica keting manager, packaging and tions While 60 percent ofthis vinyl goes medical. into long-term uses such as pipe, vinyl In the research and development siding, windows, wall coverings and department, a lab-scale chlorine scan flooring, the remaining40 percent finds ner is used to identify PVC containers its way into the solid-waste stream in for scientists who are determining how a shortertime frame. It is this vinylthe to recycle them and into what products. sortation method would begin to Though re-use as food packaging is address still sensitive, Wisner said, "The end Once sorted, processed and remanu use is unlimited. Any place that rigid factured, recycled products such as vinyl is used today is potentially an end- landscape timbers would have long use (for recycled post-consumer vinyl).' ' term durabilityand would not reappear Like other plastics companies, B.F. in the waste stream for many years Goodrich is not getting into the recycl Rigid, post-consumer vinyl is ex ing business, butrealizesrecyclingmay pected to follow with the development be key in preserving the plastics market ofvinyl sortation and markets As con in light of the solid-waste problem. sumers become more recycling-aware Other companies such as Vermont and enviromentally conscious, collec Republic Industries are exploring the tionis expected to follow. An optimistic ft&S 150292 markets for recycled post-consumer Gottesman said, "Consumers have vinyl. It now works with the industry already demonstrated that they are to identify recyclable commercial vinyl willing to include plastics in theirrecycl such as pipe, vinyl siding and packag ing efforts" -- Paris Wolfe ing, These products are either cleaned and returned to their original uses or The authoris an associate editorof^Re cleaned and ground for reprocessing in cycling Today. Vinyl bottles are among the most popular plastic containers around. They are lightweight and glass-clear, with a number of desirable physical properties. Vinyl bottles have another advantage, too. like many, many other vinyl products used every day in countless applications, they are eminently recyclable. Which means once this container has finished its useful life, it can be transformed into another, equally useful item. And with the range of potential uses for recycled vinyl, many of those items will be long-term products that won't return to the waste stream for years to come. Vinyl recycling already is underway; more proj ects are about to begin. To find out more, write The Vinyl Institute, 155 Route 46 West, Wayne Interchange Plaza 11, Wayne, NJ 07470. M