Luxus, a leading UK plastics recycling and compounding firm, develops specialised plastic compounds from prime feedstocks and, increasingly, from post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. As a Tier 1 automotive polymer supplier, having developed the ‘Hycolene’ range of high performance lightweight polypropylene (PP) compounds for vehicle interiors, we are committed to increasing the proportion of recycled material.
However, although PP is recycled from “clean” production/offcut scrap relatively easily, it is one of the least recycled Post-consumer plastics, possibly below 1% [ref American Chemistry Council], mainly because of the difficulties in decontamination and removing odour and taint from PCR. PP’s strength and melting point make it the most popular consumer packaging plastic for ready meals, yogurts, sauces, cleaning and personal care liquids. Compounds from these products infiltrate the surface of the PP packaging, making them difficult to remove; additionally, post-consumer PP tends to experience bacterial action that generates secondary musty taints via volatile fatty acids (VFAs), trichloroanisole (TCA) and methoxy-pyrazines; a major hurdle to reusing PCR for high value engineering products.
Based on experience with recycling of post-consumer PP and polyethylene for lower-value uses, we have identified a potentially cost-effective concept to remove odours from these materials to enable them to be used for automotive and engineering applications. This would enable us to help automotive and other customers (moulders of PP components for civil engineering applications) to meet sustainability targets through increased utilization of PCR materials.
