Combating plastic waste has become one of the key factors for securing the planet’s future. Since 1950, around ten billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide, more than half of it since 2000 alone. Every year, around 400 million tons are added - about 40 percent of which is packaging material. Only a fraction of this is recycled, with the majority ending in landfills and incinerators after only one use - or the waste is discarded into the environment.
“Despite recent improvements in plastic waste streams and better recycling infrastructure across the globe, the high costs and technical challenge of yielding polymers of high enough quality, have meant only around 100 million tons of plastic has been recycled so far,” said Alper Aksit, Marketing Manager Compounds & Circular Plastics Region EMEA. “Transforming plastic waste into valuable reusable plastic requires collaboration across the entire plastics value chain. Working closely with our partners and listening to our customers’ needs we have created initiatives like Evonik’s Circular Plastics Program, which combined with our TEGO® Cycle additives help speed up the plastic industry's transformation into a fully circular economy.”
Evonik’s diverse additives portfolio helps at each stage along the entire mechanical recycling value chain to convert plastic waste into reusable plastic goods. During the wet stage, Evonik’s antifoams & wetting agents can be used to make washing, separation, deinking & drying processes more efficient and help to significantly reduce energy. Additionally, during compounding (dry stage) Evonik’s odor absorbers, compatibilizers, dispersants & processing aids help to improve processing and enhance polymer properties, leading to more competitive costs and a much higher quality of recycled plastic content.
Evonik will showcase its entire additives portfolio for improving the mechanical recycling process and final quality of plastics at its booth #A12 in Amsterdam during the Plastics Recycling Show Europe, from10-11 May. In addition to the latest TEGO® Cycle products, Evonik will launch its new organo-modified siloxane-based TEGOMER® Polymer Processing Aids (PPA) for converters looking to replace standard PPAs made from fluoroelastomers in PE and PP processing.