Polykemi, Rondo Plast host workshops on plastic compounds

Plastic compounds based on recycled raw materials have been used for a long time within the automotive, electronics and building industries. During recent years, the interest to use recycled raw materials in other sectors has increased.

To support this process of change to an increased use of high-quality recycled materials, a team from Sweden-based Polykemi and Rondo Plast started a tour of in-house workshops last year to inform end customers and injection molders within the plastics industry. During 2019, the tour has continued and will go into next year due to substantial interest, the company says in a news release.

By using examples of products from successful projects, the goal of the workshops is to open a direct discussion around the use of high-quality compounds based on recycled raw materials.

“There is a strong tailwind to use quality assured recycled plastic materials in technical parts within the industries,” says Mattias Persson, sales manager at Polykemi. “The doubts about the performance of recycled materials is less and nowadays the focus of the discussions is more around where and in what applications recycled plastics can be used optimally.”

Polykemi and Rondo Plast informs about not only the benefits and possibilities, but also the limitations of recycled plastic materials. The idea is to give knowledge, clarify possible misunderstandings and to eliminate any remaining doubts.

“We want to show that high-quality recycled compounds can indeed be fully comparable to high-quality virgin prime material,” Persson says. “With correct choices of raw materials, it can be quite possible to use recycled plastics not only for nonvisible parts but also in more challenging and complex visible applications, even with demands of good surfaces.”

Initially, the focus of the tour was towards the German automotive industry, but the tour has expanded into other countries and industries.

Polykemi in cooperation with subsidiary Rondo Plast has been involved in recycling of plastics since the 1980s. The companies supply the European plastics industry with high-quality plastic compounds based on recycled raw materials with or without reinforcements and additive packages.