Additives Can Overcome Recycling Problems For Plastic Processors

By Author: joan evans
Total Articles: 16
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Recycling polymers is the buzzword in today's environment conscious
plastic industry. Recyclable polymer scrap comes from two sources:
domestic or post user and industrial scrap.

In order to successfully recycle this scrap, a recycler usually takes
a few pre-processing steps such as washing the scrap and shredding it
down to a more uniform size.

Then the washed and shredded scrap is extruded and cut into pellets of
recycled plastic which are then packed and reused for making useful
objects.

However, recycling reduces the quality of the polymer.

First and foremost, recycled polymers invariably have poorer physical
properties compared to the virgin polymers.

Second, the polymers from two different sources do not meld with each
other easily even if they are of the same plastic.

Also, the recyclers face problems due to moisture content of the
scrap. Moisture creates surface defects, which reduce the aesthetics
of the end products, reducing their value.

Due to moisture, the pellets often lack good surface finish and the
...
... reduced strength results in poor physical properties of the products
made from such pellets.

Generally, the recyclers use desiccants either while recycling scrap
or while making products from pellets, in order to reduce the effect
of moisture.

Besides pellets, Blown film extrusion is the most common method to
make plastic films, especially for the packaging industry. it involves
extruding a tube of molten polymer through an annular die and
inflating it to form a thin film bubble.

The bubble is then collapsed and used in various film applications.
Polyethylene (PE) is mostly used for the process. These days, recycled
PE is also gaining popularity among blown film manufacturers.

However, properties of the film, such as tensile strength, flexural
strength, toughness, and optical properties are again highly dependent
on the quality of polymer used for making the film and often have
defects due to moisture and reduced polymer quality of plastic scrap

Vin Polymer Additives' RecycloAid is a high performance additive for recycling plastics, specially designed to tackle the twin problem of moisture and poor
polymer quality.

“Not only does RecycloAid remove moisture related surface defects, it
also homogenizes the polymer mix, enhancing the physical properties of
the end product,” said Rohit Mahajan, technical director at VPA.

The additive has captured a substantial chunk of European recycling
markets owing to its twin action and has become the flagship offering
of the company.

For further information visit at
http://www.recycloaid.com/