POST-CONSUMER PLASTIC RECYCLING: CASE STUDIES

Aline Marques Rolim Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) PPGA NITEC Butui, 105/604 Porto Alegre Cep 90820-150 Porto Alegre - RS - BRAZIL Tel: +55 051 249 7263 E-mail: amrolim@adm.ufrgs.br Lus Felipe Nascimento Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) PPGA NITEC Av. Joo Pessoa, 155 sala 112 - Cep 90.040-000 Porto Alegre - RS - BRAZIL Tel: +55 051 316 3614 Fax: +55 051 316 3697 E-mail: nascimento@adm.ufrgs.br

ABSTRACT
Post-consumer recycling is a technological trend that recover the economic value from objects discarded by consumers (e.g. bottles and packaging). It is a trend due to the current solid waste problems. Traditional landfills are becoming saturated, scarce and environmentally undesirable. Post-consumer plastic recycling can be a sustainable development tool which help to solve these problems since plastic consumption and waste generation are increasing. This paper is originated of an on going MBA thesis. The goals of this paper are to analyze post-consumer plastic recycling technological and market aspects and to identify difficulties and benefits involved with this activity. These goals are being reached trough case studies in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The cases being studied are post-consumer plastic recycling companies and companies that manufacture end-use products from recycled plastics. This article describes their recycling technology and some market aspects. Plastic recycling is a business opportunity and it can generate jobs and reduce costs for manufacture companies trough the use of recycled plastics as raw material. In addition, preliminary results indicates that plastic waste stream separation is the main difficulty to be faced and government support seems to be essential. Track 2 MOT and Sustainable Management Keywords : post-consumer plastic waste, recycling technology

INTRODUCTION

Plastic consumption in Brazil is still low, but it is growing. The per capita plastic consumption is 19kg/ inhabitant/ year in Brazil while it is 100kg/ inhabitant/year in USA and it is 60 kg/ inhabitant/ year in Japan (CEMPRE, 1998). A plastic consumption increase can originate a plastic waste generation increase and also waste destination problems. Plastic products are mainly throw-away packaging which are characterized by degradation resistance and lightness (Netto, 1990). Nowadays destination priorities of solid waste management follow this order: recycling, incineration and disposal on landfills. It is necessary to concern first to avoid waste generation

and then to concern to its destination. According to Bisio & Xanthos (1994) three activities are involved in achieving proper environmental management of plastic: waste prevention through use of proper part/ product design techniques and manufacturing processes; reuse of plastic and composite parts/ products and; waste management through recovery/ recycling, chemical/ fuel conversion, waste-to-energy combustion units, and landfilling. Traditional landfills are becoming saturated, scarce and environmentally undesirable. Incineration reduces the waste volume that would be disposed on landfills but it is too expensive due to required cares with emissions. Thus, recycling seems to be a good choice of waste destination. According to Valle (1995) recycling has two advantages. It can reduce urban waste volume that would be disposed in landfills or would be treated and it allows the recovery of urban waste that in other way would be lost. Plastic recycling is a technological trend that allow the economic value recovery of waste. It also is a sustainable development tool which can help solving environmental problems caused by waste. According to Kinlaw (1997) sustainable development concept has been part of popular vocabulary through United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development (WCED) work and publications. WCED defines sustainable development as (...) development (...) which grants present needs without compromising future generations capacity to grant their own needs(WCED apud Kinlaw, 1997, p.82). Sustainable development is a social, economical and technological integrated development and recycling fits this definition. This paper is originated of an on going MBA thesis. The goals of this paper are to analyze post-consumer plastic recycling technological and market aspects and to identify difficulties and benefits involved with this activity. These goals are being achieved through case studies in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Cases are post-consumer recycling companies and manufacturing companies that use recycled plastic as raw material.

POST-CONSUMER PLASTIC RECYCLING 2.1 THE PLASTIC

Plastic is a type of polymeric material which can be molded by pressure or heat. It can be classified as thermoplastic or thermoset. Thermoplastic is a polymer that become soft or plastic when heated, that are molded or shaped with pressure when in the plastic state and become hardened when cooled to retain the mold or shape. The process is reversible and it can be repeated; this kind of plastic can be molded again. Thermoset is a polymer which can not be reprocessed when molded once. The thermosets are infusible solids that decompose on reheating (Ehrig & Curry, 1989). Thermoplastics are subdivided on a cost-property performance basis into commodity, engineering plastics, advanced polymers, high-heat resistant polymers and others. But interest in this paper is only on the commodity plastics which are less costly and have a great volume sales. They also have lower physical properties and are used in applications with less demanding performance requirements. Six commodity plastics constitute 97% of all plastics packaging (Ehrig & Curry, 1989). They are HDPE (high density polyethylene), LDPE (low density polyethylene), PP (polypropylene), PS (polystyrene), PVC (polyvinyl chlorine) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) (Pinto, 1995). Next there are some applications of these thermoplastics:

 LDPE: grocery bags, food film packaging, industrial bags, garbage bags, coating for milk cartons and agricultural canvas ; HDPE: beverage crates, buckets, car-parts, containers for household chemicals and detergents, household utilities; PP: noodle and biscuit packaging, margarine containers, throw-away syringes, caps, ketchup and syrup bottles; PVC: pipes, connections, mineral water and detergent bottles; PS: meat trays, egg cartons, throw-away coffee cups; PET: soft drink bottles (CEMPRE, 1999a, 1999b, )

2.2 PLASTIC RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY

Plastic recycling can be classified as primary, secondary and tertiary (Pinto, 1995). Ehrig & Curry (1989) and Mano & Bonelli (1994) classifies also recycling as quaternary. Primary and secondary plastic recycling are types of mechanical recycling. Mechanical plastic recycling involves identifying the plastic and separating it from other materials (e.g. papers, metals) and from other types of plastic, grinding it into flakes, washing, drying, agglutinating and making pellets by melting the plastic (extruding) and granulating it into small uniform pieces (Wiebeck, 1997, PLASTIVIDA/ABIQUIM, 1997, CEMPRE, 1998). There are different types of plastic that have different physical and chemical properties, so thats why each resin type has to be recycled separately. Agglutination is a operation that reduce the chopped plastic volume to be sent to extrusion and it is necessary only for plastic films (it is not necessary for hard plastics). Agglutinating equipment is a rotating cylinder that heats the ground plastic through friction transforming it into a paste. Then, small quantity of water is added to cause a sudden cooling. Plastic molecules contract, plastic density increases, transforming it into granules with enough mass and density to be extruded in a extruder. Extruder is an equipment which melts the material and converts it into strips (like spaghettis) giving it a homogeneous characteristic. In the last stage, the strips pass through a cooling bath and are chopped into grains called "pellets", that are bagged and sold to plastic products manufactures (CEMPRE, 1997a , 1997b). The specific operations of the recycling process will depend in large part on the companys confidence in the quality of the plastic and the application into which the recycled plastic will be sold or used (Plastics..., 1999). A recycling company can produce flakes or pellets because they are the two forms that the recycled plastic can be manufactured into a end-use product. Primary recycling is post-industrial plastic recycling. This kind of recycling is relatively easy due to the cleanness of the industrial plastic scrap. Secondary recycling is post-consumer plastic recycling. Post-consumer waste is any object discarded by a consumer (e.g. packaging and bottles). Secondary recycling is more difficult because there are different plastic types mixed in post-consumer waste. A selective collection programs helps plastic sortation avoiding contmainants. Selective collection is an urban solid waste collection alternative used by many brazilian cities where recyclable waste is separated by population inside their homes. Afterwards it is collected in special days separately from organic waste. Tertiary recycling is a chemical recycling and makes possible to use recycled resins in the same application as they were used originally. It decomposes plastic waste through chemical or

thermal process into their monomeric constituents which can be repolymerized to produce virgin resins. But this recycling has a high cost. Quaternary recycling is an energetic recycling. It is different from incineration because it recover energy from plastic waste to generate electricity. This paper is mainly about secondary plastic recycling because primary recycling is relatively simple, tertiary recycling is not developed yet in Brazil and requires high investments and quaternary recycling is not allowed by law in Rio Grande do Sul.

2.3 PLASTIC POST-CONSUMER RECYCLING DIFFICULTIES

According Pinto (1995) major post-consumer plastic recycling problems are connected to selective collection and to the appropriate plastic waste stream separation. They are: Few companies interested in buying the separated plastic; Big distances between a city and its buying market; Difficulty to separate the different types of plastics correctly; Difficulty to guarantee a continuous good quality raw material supply to the buyers. According to Aguiar & Philippi Jr. (1998) mainly problems for plastic recycling are selective collection high cost and the difficulty to separate materials. Huang (19995) quotes product downgrade, high costs of gathering and sorting, non easily adoption for mixed plastics, inefficiency for food packaging as plastics recycling difficulties. A careful post-consumer plastic waste washing is necessary after grinding to avoid extruder damage (Wiebeck, 1997). But the main problems to be faced according to Wiebeck (1997) are the lack of regular trusty material suppliers and the contamination of washings effluent. Its important to mention that law do not allow to use recycled plastic as raw material in products which are going to be in contact with food and hospital materials.

2.4 PLASTIC POST-CONSUMER RECYCLING OPPORTUNITIES

According Donaire (1995) business globalization, the growing consumers consciousness and the dissemination of environmental education in schools allow to presume that the environmental preservation and life quality future exigencies will intensify. Companies will have to look for opportunities to fit these new exigencies. Donaire (1995) indicates that new opportunities are materials recycling, development of new clean production processes and the development of new products for a increasing ecological concerned market. Plastic waste recycling can be one of these opportunities since it can offer cheaper products and it can offer a differentiated product with an ecological appeal for environmental concerned customers. This mean it can offer a competitive advantage according to Porter (1990) by cost reduction or product differentiation. A large number of customers is concerned with environmental. An American 1991 Gallup survey revealed that 90% of American people consider themselves environmentalists and consumers majority affirm that environmental concern affect their choice to buy a product, even if they have to pay more than other similar product (Freeman apud McDaniel & Rylander, 1993). According to Biddle (1993) theres clearly consumer demand for green products and companies can turn building demand for recycled products into a competitive advantage. However according to this author in order to produce recycled products of equivalent quality and price, then industry must invest heavily in new technologies.

CASE STUDIES

Case studies being taken are post-consumer plastic recycling companies and companies that manufacture recycled plastics as raw material in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Plastics included in the research are the six commodity types most consumed: HDPE, LDPE, PP, PVC, PS and PET. These companies were visited and the owners were interviewed. Interviews were semistructured ant they were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. Here are some preliminary results.

3.1 RECICLADORA DOIS IRMOS (RDI)

The Recicladora Dois Irmos (RDI) is a 13 employees company that receives all Dois Irmos citys selective collection garbage. The company has a treat with prefecture that gave the equipment and helps paying water, energy and equipments maintenance. All the recyclable garbage is sorted by material type and sold. Only plastics are recycled. RDI recycles LDPE (about 4 ton/ month), HDPE (about 4 ton/ month), PP (about 1.5 ton/ month) and PS (1 ton/ month). PVC (600 kg/ month) and PET (4.5 ton/ month) are not recycled; they are separated from the other materials and sold for recycling companies. The recycling operations realized by RDI are washing, grinding, drying and agglutination. Washing operation is complicated for the company because it requires many people working, water treatment and high energy consumption. RDI is also having difficulties with plastic drying. The company is besides the citys landfill facilitating effluent and rejects treatment and disposal. Demand for recycled plastic is large, larger than company can offer. The owner believes this is due to the difficulty to find clean material. Recycling benefits cited by RDI owner are avoiding large garbage disposal in landfills and petroleums economy. Inorganic materials represent about 60% in Dois Irmos waste and recycling permits a 50% volume waste reduction in landfills. About 80 to 90% of the population of the city separate household rubbish for selective collection due to the educational work being done in Dois Irmos, mainly in schools. Recycling difficulties are non identification of plastics by manufacture companies making the recovery impossible. Recycling is a world growing trend and political support for it is primary according to RDI owner. Besides, petrochemical companies are expanding their production capacity in Rio Grande do Sul state and recycling initiatives will be needed as this expansion will probably increase plastic package production.

3.2 PLASTICOS SCORPIO

Plsticos Scorpio is a manufacturing company in Novo Hamburgo which has 19 employees. It acts in shoe manufacturing and throw-away goods areas. The throw-away goods (plastic pots, forks, spoons and coffee mixers) are made from virgin resin. The shoe manufacturing area products are plastic rods, cores and trimmings for shoes and they are made from recycled HDPE, PP and PS mix, recycled PP and recycled HDPE and PP mix respectively. The company utilizes about 24 ton/ month of recycled HDPE, 5 ton/ month of recycled PP and 4 ton/ month of recycled PS. The recycled plastic used by the company as raw material is in ground form. It had already been separated from other materials and from other types of plastics, washed, ground and

dried. The major motivation for manufacturing recycled plastic is cost. According to Scorpios manager the cost is much less than virgin plastic. Besides products made from recycled plastic have a good quality for their purpose. Scorpios manufacturing process is injection. Pellets are not used because they are more expensive. All plastic waste from injection is ground and used as raw material again. Scorpios manager quotes companys cost reduction as the main recycling benefit. In addition recycling allows waste recovery, avoids waste disposal in nature and helps to create jobs. However firms products dont have any information about their recycled content. According to manager this information is not important for final consumers because when they buy a shoe, first thing they do is throwing away the rod or the core. But manager believes that if this information was available, unconscious citizens would not valorize the product and they would buy it only by a price lower than the product made from virgin plastic. Scorpios manager suggests environmental educational work in schools, government support and people training by municipalities to improve post-consumer plastic recycling activities. People must be taught how to identify each type of plastic, so they can sell it.

3.3 ALPLAST
Alplast is a company in Alvorada which has 23 employees. The company recycles and manufactures LDPE (about 20 ton/ month), HDPE (about 5 ton/ month) and PVC (about 8 ton/ month). About 90% of plastic waste recycled by Alplast is post-consumer. The firm goods are LDPE hoses and HDPE, LDPE or PVC pipes and connections. According to Alplasts managers sometimes their recycled plastic tubes are more resistant than similar virgin plastic tubes because tube walls of the first one are thicker than the second one. Alplast has many small suppliers in Rio Grande do Sul and owners say that plastic waste offering is big. However quality is not good because they buy waste already sorted by plastic type but other plastic types come together and they have to sort waste again. Recycling operations performed by Alplast are waste manual cleaning (contaminants remooving), grinding, washing, agglutinating, centrifuging, extruding and granulating into pellets. Manufacturing process performed by company is extrusion. HDPE and LDPE recycling are similar but PVC and PE (polyethylene) recycling are performed with some differences between them. In addition they are recycled in different areas of the company because one plastic contaminates the other and cause problems in each recycling. PVC waste grinding and washing are performed separately. After washing, ground PVC is bagged and dried naturally. It is not necessary to centrifuge because much less water is used than in PE recycling. Humidity from ground PVC is totally removed in agglutination and afterwards it is extruded in order to produce final products (e.g. a pipe). PVC pellets are not produced in order to reduce costs and it is possible due to PVC properties differences from PE like stiffness. HDPE and LDPE waste is ground and washed in a washer mill and afterwards it is centrifuged to remove humidity excess, agglutinated, extruded and granulated, producing pellets. These pellets are extruded again in order to produce final products (e.g. tubes and hoses). All plastic waste from Alplasts process is recovered and reprocessed. According to Alplasts owners post-consumer plastic recycling difficulties are lack of government support for this activity and the existence of many taxes. Besides recycled postconsumer plastic causes equipment damage and production interruption and recycling requires

more employees and larger energy consumption. Recycling is a business like any other one and recycling benefits are mainly environmental. Plastic takes a long time to decompose and recycling avoids landfills increasing. In addition recycling creates jobs for non qualified people. There is no information in Alplasts products about their content of recycled material, but according to owners their customers (hardware and wood stores) know this information verbally and they can tell the final customer this to explain to them why Alplasts products are cheaper than others. Alplasts owners think Brazilian customer is not environmental conscious and probably would think that a product is not good quality if they know it was made from recycled material. Suggestions for plastic recycling improvement are government support and a educational program in schools and with people who works with recycling. Although all difficulties found by Alplast, buying plastic waste and recycling it has a 50% less cost than buying the virgin resin and company sells their products 40% cheaper than the companies that manufactures similar products from virgin plastic.

3.4 SEQUAL
Sequal is a PET recycling company in Charqueadas and it has 7 employees. PET waste recycled by Sequal is post-consumer and it is mainly soft drinks bottles. The companys owner didnt reveal how much is monthly recycled, but a economical viable firm has to recycle 50 ton/ month at least according to him. His motivation to begin a recycling business was that when he started PET recycling was a growing market with a good waste offering and a good recycled plastic demand. According to Sequals owner PET recycling is very difficulty and it is different from other commodities plastics because PET is a tough plastic, with a high mechanical resistance. Thats why equipments have to be different from other plastics. PET recycling process is grinding soft drink bottles (with all contaminants), removing contaminants (automatically), washing, drying and regrinding producing a material called flake. Extrusion is not performed by Sequal but there is a project to perform this operation in the future. Grinding operation is easy but contaminants removing is not. Recycling process was not revealed in details. All recycling machines were developed by Sequal except a mill and a centrifuge. But they are not the ideal yet and they will probably be adapted. Contaminants are PP caps, LDPE or PP labels, stones, metals, sand, PVC and soft drink essence. Soft drink essence produces a caramel color flake which is not accepted by the market and PVC has similar PET properties, so its very difficult to sort them. Caps and labels are separated from PET by density difference (PET is more dense than PP and LDPE) and it is a easy operation known by all recyclers. PET recycling secret is the removing of the other contaminants. PET flakes are sold to customers in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and So Paulo. Flakes price depends on its color. Clear flake is more expensive than green flake. Clear bottles are more plentiful but their flakes demand is bigger than green flakes. Some PET flakes applications are bristles broom, ropes, packaging, fibers and tiles. According to Sequals owner PET recycling benefits are a low cost raw material for manufacturing companies and that the flake is not submitted to dollar and petroleum value fluctuations. Besides there are environmental benefits. It avoids a large volume of garbage to be disposed in landfills. A soft drink bottle is consumed and discarded very quick and plastic waste

takes a long time to decompose. Products made from recycled plastic in general have a larger life time. Recycling also helps to create jobs for unskilled people. PET recycling difficulties quoted by Sequals owner are little technological information available due to this kind of recycling is recent and to industrial secrecy. Besides company has to fight with other brazilian states for PET waste and there is no fiscal incentives for recycling. Thus, suggestions to improve recycling are government support and finding ways to increase waste recovery. According to companys owner much PET waste is not sorted yet and goes to landfills. Market for recycled PET is good and it doesnt increase more due to technological difficulties.

CONCLUSION

Analyzed companies but Sequal have similar recycling process which are simple and they strongly depend on waste quality. Waste quality means correct plastic sortation and cleanness. These companies usually look for the cleanest material in order to avoid production process problems like bad products or machine damage. According to Sequal PET recycling technology is recent and still has to be improved. Investments and studies in this area will be very important. PET soft drinks bottles are largely consumed, bulky and already considered one of the biggest waste problems. PET beer bottles will be soon a new market in Brazil and they will increase plastic waste generation and destination problems. The two manufacturer companies (Scorpio and Alplast) dont see advantages to inform the recycled content of their products to final customer. They think brazilians are not environmental concerned enough to valorize recycling and they are frightened with customer reaction. Nowadays they dont see recycled content products as a competitive advantage. They use recycled plastic as raw material mainly due to cost reduction. Recycled plastic price is much lower than virgin resin and they can produce products as good as virgin resin manufacture companies. Recycled plastic demand is good according to the analyzed recyclers. Demand is larger than they can offer meaning that post-consumer plastic recycling is a good business opportunity. But manufacturers requirements are becoming very strict and recycled plastic cleanness is valorized. Recycling companies claim that post-consumer plastic waste quality is not good in Rio Grande do Sul. Thus, investments on a better sortation technology are required. All four companies claim for government support and educational programs for people who work with plastic sortation. But this is a problem connected to other material waste problems. Selective collection implantation in municipalities can help to solve the problem. Although mechanical recycling is a good alternative for plastic waste destination it must be considered together with landfilling and tertiary recycling technologies (quaternary recycling is still distant to Brazils reality). Studies of how must be the best waste management model in Rio Grande do Sul still need to be done considering states social and economical aspects in order to reach a sustainable development . These are some preliminary results that had been analyzed until now. Other cases are being analyzed: a recycling and LDPE canvas manufacturer company, a PP recycling and manufacturer company which produces brooms, brushes and spades using recycled PET threads for bristles and recycled HDPE, LDPE and PP for other parts of its products and, a HDPE, LDPE, PP and PS recycling company in Rio Grande do Sul.

REFERENCES
AGUIAR, Alexandre & PHILIPPI JR. Reciclagem de Plsticos de Resduos Slidos Domsticos: problemas e solues. So Paulo, FSP/ USP, 1998, 19p. BIDDLE, David. Recycling for Profit: The New Green Business Frontier. Harvard Business Review. Nov- dec, 1993. BISIO, Attilio L. & XANTHOS, Marino (ed.). How to manage plastics waste: technology and market opportunities. New York, Hanser, 1994 CEMPRE Compromisso Empresarial para a Reciclagem. Ficha Tcnica 3. CEMPRE, So Paulo, 1999a. CEMPRE Compromisso Empresarial para a Reciclagem. Ficha Tcnica 7. CEMPRE, So Paulo, 1999b. CEMPRE Compromisso Empresarial para a Reciclagem. Reciclagem e Negcios Plstico Granulado. CEMPRE, So Paulo, 1998. DONAIRE, Denis. Gesto ambiental na empresa. So Paulo, Atlas, 1995. EHRIG, R. J. & CURRY, M. J. Introduction and History. In: EHRIG, R. J. Plastics Recycling: Products and Processes. New York, Hanser, 1989. p.3-16. HUANG, Samuel J. Polymer Waste Management Biodegradation, Incineration, and Recycling. In: ALBERTSSON, Ann-Christine & HUANG, Samuel J (ed.). Degradable Polymers, Recycling, and Plastics Waste Management. New York, Marcel Dekker, 1995. P.1-5. KINLAW, Dennis C. Empresa Competitiva e Ecolgica: desempenho sustentado na era ambiental. So Paulo, Makron Books, 1997. MANO, Eloisa B. & BONELLI, Cludia M. C. A reciclagem de plsticos ps-consumidos. Revista de Qumica Industrial. n. 698, out./ dez., 1994, p. 18 - 22. MCDANIEL, Stephen W. & RYLANDER, David. Strategic Green Marketing. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol. 10, n. 3, 1993, p.4-10. NETTO, Jos Simantob. A Coexistncia entre o Plstico e o Meio Ambiente no Brasil. Seminrio Internacional de Reciclagem de Plsticos. So Paulo, outubro de 1990 (mimeo.). PINTO, Armenio Gomes. Plstico. In: IPT/ CEMPRE. Lixo Municipal: Manual de Gerenciamento Integrado. 1995. p. 181-192. PLASTICS Recycling Backgrounder. www.plasticresource.com . 29 jan., 1999. PLASTIVIDA/ABIQUIM. Plsticos em Foco. So Paulo, fevereiro, 1997. PORTER, Michael E. Vantagem Competitiva: Criando e sustentando um desempenho superior. Rio de Janeiro, Ed Campus, 1990. VALLE, Cyro Eyer do. Qualidade Ambiental: como ser competitivo protegendo o meio ambiente: (como se preparar para as Normas ISO 14000). So Paulo, Pioneira, 1995. WIEBECK, Hlio. Reciclagem do Plstico e suas aplicaes industriais. USP/SEBRAE SP, So Paulo, maio, 1997.