Nonmetallics

DEMAND FOR TPE TO REACH 1.5 MILLION METRIC TONS

Demand for thermoplastic elastomers is projected to increase 6.6 percent annually to nearly 1.5 million metric tons in the year 2000, according to The Freedonia Group, Cleveland. Motor vehicles will remain the leading end use of TPEs, as new automotive applications are being developed. Also, TPEs are expected to continue to grow in industrial equipment and machinery applications. Another area of increased TPE activity is in the medical industry, as new grades of polyolefin TPEs are being used for blood bags, medical packaging and wound dressings.

TPEs hold two main advantages over synthetic rubber, which is its main competitor, according to Freedonia officials. First, TPEs may be painted or colored; and secondly, scrap TPE parts can be recycled without compromising the performance of the material.

KAYAK FLOATS ON RECYCLED PLASTIC

A recreational kayak from Walden Paddlers Inc., Concord, Mass. is making a big splash with its 12-foot kayak made from 100-percent-recycled, post-consumer plastic bottles. The company, which makes various models of the kayak out of high density polypropolyene, is reportedly the only business in the world making these types of boats out of recycled post-consumer plastic. For more information about the kayaks, visit Walden’s Internet site at http://members.aol.com/waldenpad , or call (508) 371-3000.

NEW GLASS RECYCLING PLANT FOUNDED

A new home for recycled glass has just been built by TriVitro Corp., Seattle, establishing the state’s first and only facility devoted solely to custom recycled glass processing. TriVitro’s operation consists of new primary crushing equipment, as well as equipment that produces finely-sized, quality grades of recycled glass sand. The recovered glass is sent through a multi-stage process to be cleaned, dried, pulverized, screened and bagged.

The majority of the processed material will be initially sold to the sandblasting market, with the intent to expand into a variety of other industrial applications such as filtration media, paint additives, non-skid coatings, paving tiles, art glass, or landscaping material.

"The strength of this facility is that we are flexible and can adapt to our customers’ needs," says Don Freas, president of TriVitro. "We can process post-consumer container glass as well as more problematic materials such as post-industrial glass from window manufacturers, and we can process the material into a wide range of sizes."

The plant has the capacity to process up to 50 tons per day – about 15 percent of the glass collected in Washington’s residential/commercial and industrial recycling programs.

FAILED TIRE RECYCLING VENTURES PROMPT CLEAN UP

Two tire recycling operations that have failed and left piles of scrap tires behind are the target of cleanup operations by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento. The first scrap tire pile is located in San Luis Obispo County near Arroyo Grande. At the site, nearly 2 million tires are stockpiled. The owner, who was in the auto dismantling business and is now dead, was stockpiling the tires to recycle them at the Rialto Power Plant for tire derived fuel; but the plant never came on line.

The second site is located in Tulare County and contains 2.2 million tires that were stockpiled by Tri-County Tire Shredders. The company had its tire processing permit revoked in 1993 for failing to meet the conditions of the permit, and has since filed for bankruptcy.

A third site, also in Tulare County, is being cleaned up and contains about 275,000 tires. It is not known exactly why the tires accumulated at this site.

CIWMB is spending up to $110,000 to remove debris from the sites, create fire lanes and to properly fence the sites until the tires can be recycled.

MICROWAVES, ZEOLITES HELP RECYCLE PLASTICS

A growing trend in the recycling industry is the use of pyrolysis – the process of heating materials in the absence of oxygen to break them down to lower-level materials, such as gas, liquid fuel and char. The trend started with recycling tires, now it is increasingly being targeted toward recycling plastics. The United States Navy, for example, is now investigating this approach to recycle mixed plastic waste from ships.

Currently, British scientists working at the Centre for Microporous Materials in Manchester are perfecting the pyrolysis method of recycling with the help of zeolites and microwaves. Zeolites are porous crystalline aluminum silicates that are used as catalysts in the distillation of fuel from wastes; however, the manufacture of zeolites is expensive and time consuming. Researchers have found that zeolite crystals can be made faster and cheaper by placing them in a microwave oven for about 15 minutes. Zeolites also have an added benefit for recycling polyvinyl chloride – they neutralize the hydrochloric acid that forms when PVC is heated.

PLASTIC PALLET FIRM SUES FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT

NUCON Corp., Deerfield, Ill., has filed suit in the Federal District Court of Chicago charging that a rival firm, Menasha Corp, Neenah, Wis., has infringed on its patented repairable plastic pallet made from recycled feedstock. NUCON is seeking monetary damages, enhanced damages, attorneys fees and an immediate injunction against Menasha.