[Source Bundesumweltamt (German Federal Ministry of the Environment) http://www.umweltbundesamt-daten-zur-umwelt.de/ ]
mtm mainly makes use of used polyethylene or polypropylene packaging as secondary raw materials. These predominantly consist of pure high quality plastics but only have a very short “lifecycle” before becoming waste and being collected for recycling in Germany and in many other European countries. We annually purchase about 75,000 tons of secondary raw materials from this collection and convert it into regranulates. This is used by our customers for manufacturing long lasting technical commodities. For this reason, we prefer to speak of up-cycling (upgrading) rather than recycling because we ensure that plastics are sensibly used as products for the longer term. The associated saving in Co2 amounts to more than 1 ton per ton of regranulates as compared with incinerating in an incineration plant.
Recycling: New from old
In using old plastics, we focus on maintaining the original properties of the plastic as far as possible. These are definitive for converting the recycled material into new products. In order to be able to maintain this quality consistently in the longer term, the production process for our regranulates was certified in accordance with ISO 9001. We fulfil all of the requirements of the REACH and CLP regulations and monitor these regularly. Produktionsprozess unserer Regranulate nach ISO 9001 zertifiziert. Alle Anforderungen der REACh-Verordnung und der CLP-Verordnung werden erfüllt und regelmäßig überwacht. Our plastic regranulates are tested in our laboratory in accordance with the latest status of technology.
The regranulate production process
We receive our input materials in bales from sorting plants in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France, in which the plastic packaging has been pre-sorted. In addition to old packaging, we also use household packaging from bulk waste collections. After its delivery to us, the used plastics are first broken down in large shredders. Thereafter, we remove extraneous material which can be contained in the bales (metals, wood, glass, impurities, sand, stones, paper), by a dry mechanical process. After a further shredding process, the plastics are then mixed with water in centrifuges and separated according to types. The target fractal is plastics with a specific weight less than one i.e. which float in water. These are called polyethylene and polypropylene (polyolefins). All other plastics, which are not desired in the regranulates (PET, polystyrene, PVC) and residual paper, aluminium, adhering substances and all other materials, are separated in the centrifuge process. This is done in a combined washing and separating plant. Thereafter the shredded material is dried and finally converted to regranulate. In this process step, the material is compressed, melted at 180 to 240 degrees, kneaded (plasticized), degasified under pressure, fully intermixed (homogenised) and then formed into its characteristic cylindrical granular form under water.
Here you will find an overview of our product classes and the opportunities for modifying them.
Video: See how regranulates are produced by mtm
On the next page we would like to present the multitude of applications for our regranulates.
