BIR Plastics Committee Looks at Worldwide Markets

The progress of a company at the cutting edge of recycling plastics from cars and electronic goods was detailed at the Plastics Round-Table in Milan.

Mike Biddle, founder and managing director of MBA Polymers, Inc., a U.S.-based company, confirmed that his company had just started up a 40,000 metric tons per year processing facility in China’s Nansha Development Zone under a joint venture with Guangzhou Iron & Steel Enterprises. A plant with a similar processing capacity was also scheduled to come on stream early next year in Austria as part of a joint venture with Muller-Guttenbrunn GmbH. Biddle added: “We plan on expanding in Asia and Europe. I have investors lined up to build more plants.”

MBA Polymers has invested more than $30 million in developing its technology. The process comprises: size reduction and liberation; separation of non-plastic items; separation of mixed plastics; final cleaning and sorting; and pelletization and/or compounding. According to Biddle, the company’s approach ensures the separation not only of different plastics but also of different grades.

Some of the companies supplying scrap to MBA Polymers are also taking back the final product and using it to manufacture 100 percent recycled content components, such as TV housings. “So we close the loop,” insisted Biddle.

Round-Table delegates in Milan also heard several country-specific market reports. According to Surendra Borad of Belgium-based Gemini Corporation NV, upwards of 2 million metric tons of plastics are recycled each year in India - a country that consumes around 4.2 million metric tons of plastics per year. However, an uncertain future awaited some 20 of the 30 Indian operations licensed to import plastics scrap; their licenses were due to come up for renewal at the end of October and extensions had yet to be approved. He added: “About 6,000 metric tons of plastics scrap is being imported every month. If these licenses are not renewed, then the quantity will be reduced to about 3,000 metric tons per month.”

BIR Plastics Committee Chairman Peter Daalder of Daly Plastics BV in The Netherlands reported that, on June 1 this year, Germany had implemented a ban on the landfilling of burnable and recyclable materials. The supply of some grades - such as mixed rigid plastics and dirty LDPE 60/40 - had improved since the introduction of the ban, he contended.

Reporting on the French, Spanish and Italian markets, Jacques Musa of France-based Soulier said a fall in secondary PET demand - particularly for bottles from household collections - could be attributed to over-stocking in the key Chinese market.