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The importance of recycling: unlocking potential through complementary recycling technologies

Plastics & Rubber

The importance of recycling:
Unlocking potential through complementary recycling technologies

Around 350 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year, but only about 10 percent is recycled. One reason is that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.

A variety of recycling approaches is needed to achieve circularity

In the coming years, sustainable practices and waste management will increasingly depend on a variety of recycling technologies. Rather then competing, these technologies will work together to enhance efficiency. As mechanical recycling methods reach their limits for some waste streams, the importance of chemical recycling routes will grow ensuring no opportunity for circularity is left untapped. This is why BASF supports all types of recycling technologies.

Mechanical recycling

Recycling today usually refers to mechanical recycling.  Plastic waste is collected, sorted, shredded and cleaned before being melted down and processed into new products. The basic chemical structure of the plastics remains unchanged. The purer and cleaner the plastic waste that is fed into the process, the higher the quality of the end product. This means that the waste streams must be pre-sorted accordingly. For example, many PET bottles, which generally only consist of one type of plastic, or lightweight packaging materials are well suited.

Find more information here.

Solvent-based recycling

In solvent-based recycling, plastic waste is heated in a solvent to dissolve the desired polymer. This initially produces an opacity, which then precipitates after the addition of an anti-solvent and can be separated and dried in a further step. The result is a recycled pure polymer in powder form, which can then be further processed.

Depolymerization

Depolymerization or solvolysis is the preferred method for recovering waste streams such as polyurethanes (e.g. in mattresses) and polyamides, provided that large quantities of high-quality waste streams are available. In this process, the plastic waste is broken down into smaller molecules, such as its original monomers. These monomers can then be purified, reassembled and used to produce new plastics. To be successful, the technology requires relatively homogeneous and purified waste streams.  Unfortunately, suitable EPR systems to access waste streams are not yet widely available.

Pyrolysis

One of the most widely applicable chemical recycling technologies is a thermal decomposition under absence of oxygen called pyrolysis. It is capable of processing mixed and contaminated plastics. In BASF's ChemCycling® project technology partners process mixed plastic waste or used tires into secondary raw material, the so-called pyrolysis oil as main output. The oil is fed into our production system at the beginning of the value chain and processed into new plastics. Contaminations in the waste feedstock are removed by thermal decomposition, chemical conversion, and purification. The recycled feedstock is attributed to the products manufactured in the BASF Verbund system using a mass balance method. 

Learn more about our ChemCycling® project here.

Gasification

With gasification plastics and other high-caloric waste is broken down into small chemical molecules at high temperatures and with the addition of oxygen or steam. The final product is synthesis gas. After purification, the synthesis gas can be applied directly in petrochemical production. Gasification can be used to process a wide range of heterogeneous waste streams. However, the more heterogeneous the waste streams, the more complex the purification to produce a high-quality synthesis gas becomes. Gasification needs a lot of energy and has high process engineering requirements that can only be implemented in large-scale plants. This, in turn, requires large quantities of raw materials collected in one place. 

Organics Recycling

Organics recycling converts organic waste such as food or green waste into compost, which is a valuable material for the soil as the nutrients from the food are returned to the soil. The use of certified compostable biopolymers, e.g. for food packaging, can expand the options for disposal of these products, especially when mixed with kitchen and food waste. This helps to close the cycle of food production, as food waste no longer needs to be landfilled or incinerated.

In addition, compost prevents soil erosion and has a positive impact on climate resilience: Food waste is no longer landfilled, where it produces the greenhouse gas methane, or incinerated, where the organic matter provides little energy recovery.  This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and combats climate change.

To accelerate #ourplasticsjourney, we are working with partners along the value chain on several projects of different maturity levels. We offer solutions that further improve mechanical recycling and use new, innovative and complementary chemical recycling technologies on a large scale. 

Watch the videos below to find out how!

Chemical recycling:
Ready for scale-up of pyrolysis

#ChemicalRecycling #Pyrolysis

Plastics circularity requires a variety of solutions to address the broad range of applications and their resulting end-of-life materials. Chemical recycling technologies are suited for waste streams for which mechanical recycling is not applicable, for example mechanical recycling rejects or end-of-life tires. BASF has established partnerships with technology companies Quantafuel, Arcus and Pyrum which supply us with pyrolysis oil. We feed the oil as recycled feedstock into our integrated production network and attribute it to certified Ccycled® products through a mass balance approach. BASF customers have successfully introduced Ccycled® products in various industries like (food) packaging, textile and automotive.

ARCUS is a greentech start-up company founded in 2016. By means of its technology, it aims to use its technology to sustainably recycle plastic waste that cannot or only with difficulty be recycled in the carbon cycle and thus to use fewer fossil raw materials on the one hand and to master the global challenge of plastic waste on the other. ARCUS Greencycling Technologies GmbH is based in Ludwigsburg. For more information, seewww.arcus-greencycling.com.

Turn old into new:
Recycling of used mattresses made of flexible polyurethane

#ChemicalRecycling #Depolymerization

BASF has developed a wet chemical recycling process for used mattresses made of flexible polyurethane. Initial small-scale trials have been very promising. The original polyols can be recovered from the used mattress foams and used again to produce high-quality flexible foam blocks. The quality of these flexible foam blocks made from recycled polyurethane are equivalent to those made from conventional materials from fossil raw material sources. Thus, high-quality new mattresses can be produced from alternative polyurethane.

Access to new raw material streams – use of recyclable insulation materials

#MechanicalRecycling

Insulation materials play an important role in achieving climate targets. Their use for building insulation reduces energy consumption and thus saves heating costs and CO2 emissions over a period of at least 50 years. Keeping raw materials in the loop and reducing the use of fossil raw materials are overarching goals of BASF towards a circular economy.

This also applies to products in the construction sector such as Neopor®, so-called EPS, and Styrodur®. Together with our partner Bachl, we have succeeded in using regranulated EPS, which was produced from protective packaging, as a Neopor® raw material which was used to produce new Neopor® insulation panels.

In addition, we have launched the digital platform mcyclo, which can be used to efficiently organize the collection of Styrodur® off-cuts from the construction site. These off-cuts can then be processed into new insulation materials.

More projects to follow. Stay tuned.