Over five informative and innovative weekly webinars, the Thermo Fisher Scientific webinar series “Sustainable Products from Plastic Waste” introduced advancements in science to create efficient recycling methods for separating and processing these materials.
Modern plastics, used in packaging, automotive, textile, and other applications, often contain complex chemical mixtures, posing significant recycling challenges. From regulatory requirements to analytical technical solutions in material development with pre- and post-consumer plastic waste, learn how inline methods, rheology, and extrusion streamline R&D processes for faster and more sustainable product development.
In this interview, we speak to the six experts from the webinar series. They share valuable insights from their presentations and answer FAQs.
Dr. Madina Shamsuyeva, presenter of “Differences in the Recycling of Pre- and Post-Consumer Plastic Waste from a Standardisation Perspective”.
Can You Explain the Difference Between Post-Consumer and Post-Industrial Recyclates?
Post-industrial waste is produced during the production process. Due to its purity and known composition, it is easier to recycle, while post-consumer waste is generated after the product has been used.
Why is the Classification of Recyclates Important?
This distinction ensures transparency in plastic recycling and helps set recycling targets.
Dr. Ophélie Ranquet, presenter of “Fundamentals of Polymer Rheology”.
What is the Weissenberg Effect in Rheology, and How is it Similar to Handling Spaghetti?
I like to compare polymers with spaghetti. When you have a plate of spaghetti and use your fork to rotate them, the spaghetti will roll around and start to climb up the fork. This is similar to the Weissenberg effect in rheology, where polymers exhibit a climbing effect under certain conditions, which can affect measurements.
How Does the Weissenberg Effect Impact Rheological Measurements, and What Can Be Done to Mitigate It?
The Weissenberg effect can distort rheological measurements by causing viscoelastic fluids (like polymers) to climb rotating tools due to normal stress differences, leading to inaccurate viscosity readings. To mitigate this, using oscillatory shear mode instead of steady rotation allows the material to relax between cycles, reducing elastic instabilities and improving measurement reliability.
Felix Mehrens and Niklas Rode, co-presenters of “Mechanical Recycling Meets Innovation: Real-Time Analysis in the Extrusion Process”.
What are the Challenges When Using Recycled Materials in the Circular Economy?
When we talk about polymers in a circular economy context, we are, of course, talking about recyclates. A particular challenge when using recycled materials is inhomogeneous material properties. When using virgin polymer, we can assume that we have properties that are always the same. This is not the case when we look at recyclates. The reason is that during the life cycle of products, there's some change in the material properties due to degradation, mechanical impact, or contact with different substances. Depending on the collection system, it is possible that different plastics with different properties are mixed together, which directly influences the properties of the recyclates and can lead to heterogeneous properties. - Felix
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How Does Temperature Affect the Prediction of Material Composition in Your Study?
Before talking about the prediction of the composition of the materials, the influence of the temperature was investigated because the Raman spectra show a dependency on the temperature. As you can see, we have a difference in the different spectra. The hot spectra have a small shift towards lower wave numbers, and the peaks get a little bit wider. This tells us that if we want to build a model, we have to pick a temperature where we are planning to use the model because this is not consistent over all the different temperatures. - Niklas
Dr. Annika Völp, presenter of “Studying Mechanical Marine Plastic Waste Recycling Using Twin-Scale Extrusion and Injection Molding”.
What are the Challenges and Solutions in Recycling Marine Plastic Waste?
Recycling marine plastic waste presents unique challenges due to contamination and degradation, making it more difficult to recycle than land-based plastic waste. This study focuses on mechanical recycling, specifically blending dirty marine plastic waste into virgin low-density polyethylene to evaluate the viability and the properties of the recyclates.
How does the Blending of Marine Plastic Waste with Virgin Materials Affect the Properties of the Recyclates?
Blending marine plastic waste with virgin PE generally maintains or improves the thermal stability, except in the case of the significantly degraded and contaminated PA blend. This highlights the importance of carefully sorting and monitoring the waste material during the blending process to ensure high-quality reciclates.
Professor João Maia, presenter of “Hybrid Chemical Mechanical In-Melt Separation of PE/PET Blends: A First Step Towards Recycling at Scale of Mixed Plastic Waste”.
What are the Limitations of Chemical Recycling for Plastics?
Chemical recycling, in principle, offers high added value for recycled products, but it has several major problems. It has low capacity, with the largest plants handling only about 100,000 tons a year, and it's incredibly expensive to set up. The process also has a high environmental impact due to CO2 emissions from the chemicals used, and the energy consumption is significant. Additionally, contamination can lead to low recycling efficiency, making chemical recycling inadequate for solving large-scale problems.
How does Hybrid Mechanical-Chemical Recycling Address the Limitations of Traditional Recycling Methods?
We're trying to bring in the best of both worlds with hybrid mechanical-chemical recycling. By coupling chemical and mechanical recycling using advanced reactive extrusion, we can achieve high throughput and maintain the value of the polymers. This method allows for the separation and upcycling of waste streams, addressing the issues of contamination and feedstock variability that limit traditional recycling methods.
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