Additives producer Baerlocher, has long advocated the use of stabilisers to enhance the quality of post-consumer polyolefin recycled materials. This has become particularly relevant as demand for increased recycled content in various applications continues to rise.
For many processors, a reliable supply of recycled material of consistent good quality is a challenge.
Baerlocher has developed a proprietary resin stabilisation technology that, by preventing the thermal and oxidative degradation of polyolefins during mechanical recycling and moulding processes, brings the circular economy within reach.
The company’s Baeropol RST is a family of customisable additive blends that work synergistically with phenolic antioxidants to stabilise polyolefin resins. As a result, these additives can help increase the amount of cost-effective recycled content incorporated in resin and film without impacting performance and appearance. Moreover, aiming to expand the use of recycled polyolefins by improving their quality and consistency, the company also works directly with recyclers to stabilise post-consumer resins. They can stabilise low-value consumer film waste during high-temperature melt filtration, enabling the film to be upcycled into a product suitable for reuse in blown film, and they can improve the color of recycled content.
“Baerlocher’s long-term commitment to the greater sustainability of plastic materials is aimed at making the circular economy a near-term reality,” said Andreas Holzner, global SPA business head, Baerlocher. “Our approach is based on strategic collaborations with technology companies, polyolefin producers, machinery suppliers, converters, brand owners and industry associations to promote mechanical recycling by stabilising recyclates.”
This resin stabilisation technology will now also be the subject of a presentation entitled “Advances in Extrusion Blow Molding of Post-consumer Resin,” at the virtual 2021 SPE International Polyolefins Conference, from 23-24 Feb. A Gold event sponsor, Baerlocher will focus on its Baeropol T-Blend stabilizers, based on its RST platform, during the presentation on 23 Feb.
The talk will be delivered by Baerlocher USA’s technical specialist Ian Query, who will discuss how these additives can increase the percentage of recycled content that can be successfully incorporated in extrusion blow moulded high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles and polyethylene (PE) film.
Query will reveal the results of a rigorous Baerlocher study on early stabilisation of post-consumer polyolefin materials to preserve their mechanical properties, improve process stability and enhance end-product quality. In order to understand the importance of timeliness of implementation of solutions like stabiliser blends, a set of experiments was run on extrusion blow moulded articles to illustrate the rate of performance decay that occurs between the recycler and the moulder. This analysis proposes pathways to improve upon current recycled content utilisation while simultaneously improving end-use properties.