Page 57 - Plastics News September 2024
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BUSINESS NEWS
ulated material by color. Recently, Aaron began anyway,” Marchand says. “But it certainly pro-
using the system at full-scale, commercial truck- vides more options to the end user.”
load volumes.
After sorting, sometimes with multiple iterations,
For certain streams, the sorter expands what materials go on to one of Aaron’s six extrusion
Aaron can do, turning a mixed stream into a lines for blending and pelletization. Finally, post-
stream that is closer to a particular color, or blending assures the customer receives a uni-
closer to white or natural. “We’re not matching form and consistent product.
colors to an actual Pantone,” Marchand explains.
“It just opens up the palette for what we can do The FDA has issued letters of no objection to
with that particular stream.” Aaron for recycling of polyethylene and poly-
styrene, which enables their use in food contact
Each sort brings the material closer to a desired applications. These materials can also be en-
color, not eliminating the other colors entirely hanced by the sorting system, enabling Aaron
but bringing them to a level that makes the resin to work with a customer to offer a compound
more usable. The new sorting equipment ena- that includes recycled material in a color that will
bles Aaron to produce variations of red, blue, work for their application.
green, yellow, orange, white and even lighter
shades. The company also works with virgin materials,
offering mixed content compounds to custom-
A recycled stream will not typically be sortable ers that want to incorporate recycled materials
to a pure natural, for example, it can be mostly but also need the virgin content for more stable
natural with a hue to it, which can be colored processing and better mechanical properties.
or matched to an application. “It’s tough to sort Aaron has a minimum batch size for optically
something to 100%, so a lot of the products we sorted material of just 1,000 lbs, with no maxi-
make will have a greenish or bluish hue to them mum.
that can be colored over, or won’t matter much Source – Plastics Technology
if the customer is going to make blue or green
APR encourages MRF tours over ‘tracker tests’
he Association of Plastic Recyclers is en- cling,” APR Chief Policy Officer Kate Bailey said
couraging members of the public who that adding trackers “just doesn’t work the way
Thave questions about what really hap- people think it will work.” APR owns Resource
pens to their recycling to book a MRF tour in- Recycling, Inc., which publishes Plastics Recy-
stead of putting trackers in curbside materials. cling Update.
In an episode of APR’s Recycled Content Pod- “It actually has the opposite effect. The sorting
cast, “Correcting the Record on Plastic Recy- equipment at the MRF is highly specialized to
PLASTICS NEWSASTICS NEWS
September 2024 PL 57 59
September 2024
