Seven awards for the innovative recycling

The winners of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2019 were announced at the Plastics Recycling Show Europe, held at the RAI Amsterdam in The Netherlands on April 11. The seven award winners are:

- Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product: Volvo Recycled Plastics Demo Car, Volvo Cars;

- Building & Construction Product: MPO Easy Channel, Multiport;

- Household & Leisure Product: PBD Collection Bag, Cedo Folien- und Haushaltsprodukte;

- Plastic Packaging Product: Garçon Wines sustainable 100% rPET, flat wine bottle;

- Plastics Recycling Ambassador: Gian De Belder, Procter & Gamble;

- Product Technology Innovation: REC-NIR-BLACK, Ampacet;

- Recycling Machinery Innovation: Cascade Extrusion System Corema by Interseroh Dienstleistungs and Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen.

“Already in their second year the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe have come of age, thanks to the quality and depth of entries we have received”, said Ton Emans, PRE President and awards judge. “Together our seven winners show outstanding innovation in recycling to use plastics in a truly sustainable and circular way. Congratulations to them all”.

The winners each received a trophy, with a 3D printed base made from 100% recycled ABS plastic car dashboards and the multi-colour top which is laser cut from compressed HDPE beach clean-up bottle caps.

The recycled plastics demo car by Volvo Cars, demonstrates that recycled plastics definitely have a place in the automotive industry. The jury lauded Volvo’s pioneering work in this area: a total of 170 plastic components in this demo XC60 were replaced by recycled plastics. A unique accomplishment and deserved of this award.

The MPO Easy Channel drainage system by Multiport makes perfect sense: made from HDPE- and PP packaging waste, it is lightweight, easy to handle and easy to lay. The jury liked the fact that the material was an ideal fit for the purpose and as result successful in the market.

The PBD drawstring collection bag by Cedo Folien- und Haushaltsprodukte contains more than 90% certified post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic of which more than 40% is flexible packaging. As well as successfully recycling post-consumer plastic, the collection bag is designed to actively encourage the collection of plastic packaging, metal packaging and drink cartons for recycling.

The sustainable, 100% rPET, flat wine bottle by Garçon Wines and RPC M&H Plastics is an innovative mail order wine bottle that fits through letter boxes. This product fits perfectly with the spirit of our times. The packaging combines convenience and cost-effectiveness with a lightweight sustainable design, ticking all the boxes required in packaging today.

Gian De Belder is the face of Procter & Gamble’s commitment to sustainable development. He has worked tirelessly to develop solutions to problems such as the recyclability of Opaque and Difficult to Recycle (ODR) household and personal care PET bottles. He is the project leader of Procter & Gamble’s Holy Grail project, which is developing industry-wide system for watermark and tracer technology. He has put recycling on the map, both for the industry and consumers and was therefore unanimously voted this year’s Plastics Recycling Ambassador by the jury.

Carbon black packaging waste - trays, clamshells and the like - causes problems in recycling streams, as it cannot be detected by the NIR sensors used by most recyclers. Ampacet Corp has developed black masterbatches that contain no carbon black pigment, rendering them near-infrared (NIR) transparent, and therefore detectable and able to be sorted. Ampacet’s NIR (near-infrared) detectable black colourants are part of the company's sustainable development programme.

The Corema Cascade Extrusion System, extrusion line for mechanical recycling of post-consumer thermoplastics by Interseroh Dienstleistungs and Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen was recognised by the judges as the most innovative combination of processing technologies that delivers cost-effective recycling of post-consumer plastic to produce high quality plastic material.