In the world of plastics recycling, polyamide gets relatively little attention. However, this engineering thermoplastic is increasingly used in a wide range of applications in textiles, packaging, automotive, and construction and its virgin production has high environmental impact, making the need to improve its recycling rates ever more pressing.
At Fakuma, Belgium-based Domo Chemicals is showcasing new polyamide 6 and 66 solutions incorporating recycled content, alongside its full range of polyamide recycling technologies: post-industrial and post-consumer mechanical, dissolution, depolymerisation, and bio-based mass balance.
Recycled fish nets
One of the novelties is Domo’s expanded range of TECHNYL 4EARTH recycled solutions, featuring polyamides made from post-consumer fishing nets. Domo recycles discarded fish nets, collected by Sea2Sea both at sea and at fish farming locations in Africa, into stable and high-quality grades with up to 100% recycled content.
The material manufacturer is seeing ‘huge demand, more than we can handle’ for recycled polyamide, Ludovic Tonnerre, Chief Commercial Officer, told Sustainable Plastics. Its customers use it for a myriad of applications, from car components to light switch connectors and plugs.
Domo is a pioneer in polyamide recycling, Tonnerre said, pointing out that the company recognised the value in waste long before competitors. It currently makes 13% of its sales from recycled polyamide and aims to bring this up to 20%.
“Fifteen years ago, our company began recognising the value of waste, long before sustainability was a priority for most of our customers. We initially focused on reprocessing waste, gradually building our expertise. Today, we are the European leader in polyamide recycling.”
Domo has mastered the recycling of fish nets at its centre of excellent in Arco, northern Italy. The TECHNYL 4EARTH product line is manufactured at the Arco plant, which covers an area of 30,000 square meters and includes eight compounding lines with a nominal capacity of up to 40 kilotons year of technical materials based on PA 6 and PA 66.
The mechanical recycling process transforms the polyamide into a product that matches the quality of virgin materials, according to Tonnerre.
“The great thing about fishnets is that some are uncoloured, which gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of colouration. When you recycle coloured waste, like black materials, you're limited in what you can do - at best, you might end up with grey. But with uncoloured fishnets, we have a much broader range of design options.”
Domo processes the material with a wide range of color additives according to customer preferences. It also recycles brown fish nets into a light brown TECHNYL 4EARTH grade.
All technologies
What distinguishes Domo from other suppliers of recycled poylamide is its wide range of recycling technologies, Tonnerre explained.
Its in-house post-industrial and post-consumer mechanical recycling technology is at the heart of the company’s expertise. Domo puts special focus on mechanical recycling because it offers the most significant reduction in CO2 footprint in comparison to virgin material, said Elisabetta Testa, engineering plastics marketing at Domo. Whilst Domo’s chemically recycled polyamide derived from waste cooking oil reduces CO2 emissions by around 20%, mechanically recycled grades achieve reductions between 60% and 80%.
The secret, though, is to develop and invest in technologies across the board that can process all kinds of feedstock for applications requiring varying degrees of performance. Domo is currently exploring dissolution technologies for mainly black PA 6 and PA 66 materials and partners with ‘industry leaders’ for depolymerisation and mass balanced chemical recycling technologies.
“We work with fibres from the yarn industry, fishnets, films from packaging, and even airbag waste,” Testa said. “We also recycle a lot of black material for the automotive industry,” she added.
Domo’s sustainable offerings for the auto industry also include lightweight and flame-retardant polyamide compound grades.
Automotive applications
Domo has built a solid reputation in the automotive industry thanks to its project-based approach.
Tonnerre complains that many new players approach polyamide recycling ‘opportunistically’, lacking consistency in its material offering. This lack of reliability disrupts the market and has damaged the reputation of recycling in the auto industry, Tonnerre said.
“These companies often approach recycling as a short-term, operational task rather than building a sustainable supply chain. This has led to situations where automotive companies are left stranded after six months with no supply. They rely on steady, high-quality inputs, and inconsistent suppliers damage trust and cause long-term problems.”
With 15 years of polyamide recycling under its belt, Domo has understood the specific needs of the auto industry and became a trusted supplier, Tonnerre added.
“We don’t simply put recycled material on the market and hope it sells. When a customer approaches us, we start by asking about their specific needs, such as quality requirements and CO2 reduction targets. Then we design a tailored solution, finding the right supply chain to meet those goals over the long term. We prioritise testing and ramping up production at a pace that ensures quality, without creating false expectations. This project-based approach is what makes us different and why we’ve succeeded in this industry,” he concluded.