Page 26 - Plastics News April 2022

FEATURE

the electricity meters in German house-
Recapturing E-Waste Materials holds. The particular plastic is no longer
produced or used in new products, but
ather than fast and easy, Reco E- cle size. Reco E-Waste has success- it is still in demand because it was also
RWaste from the beginning has pri- fully produced powders as small as used to mold headlights in older auto-
oritized completeness. Nothing from 20 nanometers in diameter. These mobiles. The classic car market turned
the original CPU, hard drive, computer very fine powders are of particular out to be a destination for this seem-
mouse or laptop is wasted if the compa- interest for medical additive manu- ingly obsolete material.)
ny can help it. For most metal materials, facturing, where powder diameter Ultimately, the company aims to offer
the conversion rate is 1-to-1 from input translates into surface quality and a “full range” of materials as a one-stop
to output. The process looks like this: ease of cleaning for an end-use shop for high-quality powders for ad-
a) Devices are collected, cleaned and medical device. ditive manufacturing. This will mean
disassembled; at this stage non- With three facilities in Germany, Reco expanding into new metals outside the
metal elements such as plastics are E-Waste is currently capable of process- electrical realm, including steel and tita-
separated out into other recycling ing up to 3 tons of raw material and nium. It will mean bringing lab capac-
streams. Metals are tested to deter- producing between 500 and 1,500 kg ity in-house. It will mean building out
mine their makeup before moving of metal powder each day. Materials staff, facilities and eventually expanding
into the extraction process. currently being converted are primarily internationally.
copper, aluminum and nickel, but gold,
b) Metals are extracted one by one. Part of the strategy going forward too
“This is production reversed,” von lithium, palladium, silver, platinum will be more formalized relationships
Stokar says. A series of catalytic re- and other metals commonly found in with manufacturers, to capture and re-
actions dialed in for each element electronics are being recaptured as well. cycle materials in a cradle-to-cradle fash-
separates them one at a time. A part Right now, much of its feedstock is free ion. Reco E-Waste already has some in-
— discarded e-waste either donated or
might be stripped of all its gold, dustrial customers that engage with the
then its copper, then its aluminum, sought out by the company to divert it company in this circular economy mod-
for instance. Catalysts used in these from conventional recycling or the land- el. Process waste, scrapped components
fill. In some cases Reco is even stockpil-
reactions are food grade and don’t ing some items it isn’t yet processing, or used products can be turned over to
contaminate the wastewater. Reco to be converted into 3D printing
like old TVs and radios, in anticipation materials that those customers can then
c) Each recovered material is convert- of coming demand for the materials
ed into pellets, then mechanically they contain. (Interestingly, the mate- buy back if they choose. Whether the
sized down as needed. A combina- rials captured need not be in demand material literally returns to the manu-
facturer or not is less important, how-
tion of cleaning and sieving steps for new products. At one point Reco ever, than keeping the existing material
sequentially improves material pu- began collecting “power counters,” the in play wherever it can be used.
rity while reducing powder parti- old plastic enclosures that used to house

Tips to Maximize Purging Efficiency such as check rings.

Dave Denzel Other processors run excessive pounds
As a best practice, a periodic purging routine or preventive-maintenance purge of virgin material through their ma-
program should be established to avoid contamination buildup chines to purge the previous material.
This is both expensive and ineffective.
Commercial purging compounds cessors continue to try to purge their Why add excess material or scrap parts
(CPCs) have been shown to be the best machines with home remedies that in- to landfills? Color and material changes
way to clean resin out of your plastics clude everything from wood chips to are faster using a CPC. Most CPCs are
processing machinery. And they are hand soap. Not only are such treatments designed to remove stubborn carbon
also the most effective way to purge time-consuming (due to the need to re- and color deposits, while ordinary pro-
processing machinery during extended move nozzles, dies etc.), they do nothing cessing resins fall short of the ingredients
shutdowns. Believe it or not, many pro- to clean internal machine components necessary to clean a barrel and screw.

26 PLASTICS NEWS April 2022