Reuse Plastic Waste

Veltkamp has been using recycled plastic for over 30 years

Veltkamp is a manufacturer of plastic products and has been using about 80% recycled granulate in its production processes for about 30 years.

The preferred materials here are bottle caps, click bins and especially car bumpers.

Nowadays, however, everyone wants products made from recycled material, in order to present themselves as environmentally friendly.

As a result, in the EU, consumption has increased dramatically, availability has decreased sharply and prices have risen sharply.

Plastic is not only inexpensive, safe, lightweight and can be used for a huge number of applications, but it is also extremely recyclable and environmentally friendly.

Of course, waste disposal is of great importance here, as for so many materials. Problems arise from litter and from dumping waste into open water and seas, as is still done in many southern countries.

Availability

Obviously, it is very important that there is also a constant supply of this recyclate. In practice, this is not always the case. Shiploads of recyclate are regularly sold en route to a European port and sailed off to China, among other countries.

The availability of suitable recyclate in a constant flow is therefore increasingly limited.

So what about bioplastics?

Bioplastics are artificial polymers made from PLA (Polylactic acid). PLA is produced from starch using a chemical process. However, this does not mean that the plastic itself is biological, and therefore, it does not mean that the plastic is biodegradable. These bioplastics are compostable under certain industrial conditions. However, this requires high energy consumption to break down the molecular chains.

The percentage of added filler can vary significantly, and this often has an adverse effect on the mechanical properties of the plastic. Some fillers should also not be left outside or in a damp environment for too long. For example, with wood, the weight increases disproportionately.

Furthermore, developments are underway in which fillers are added to both synthetic and bioplastics. A disadvantage here is the CO2 emissions resulting from the transport movements of the filler and the plastics to the mixing location. There, the plastics are melted again and subsequently granulated. This not only consumes a lot of energy, but the substances can also no longer be decomposed. At the end of their life cycle, these plastics can only be incinerated in their entirety. This is in contrast to pure plastic, which can be recycled.

Bioplastics are intended to replace disposable packaging. However, the material is not biodegradable in nature but must be processed in special composting facilities. Plastics remain plastics and do not belong in nature. Plastics that eventually break down form microplastics that can no longer be removed from nature using current techniques. Bioplastics are also considerably more expensive. As a result, the final production costs are currently still too high for many consumers.