7 mistakes during industrial recycling
Recycling projects offer great potential to lower costs, reduce waste, and reach sustainability targets. At the same time, however, mistakes can happen that have a negative impact on efficiency, quality, and cost-effectiveness.
Problems that range from not defining objectives clearly to feed materials that have not been sorted properly, and health and safety protection being neglected, can all be avoided.
In this article, we show you the most frequent mistakes made in industrial recycling and provide you with practical tips on how you can plan your recycling projects successfully.
Mistake #1: No clear mission before the start of a recycling project
A frequent stumbling block at the start of recycling projects is having no clear mission before contacting manufacturers. Often, essential information is missing. Inquiries such as "We need a recycling system" are too unspecific for manufacturers to provide professional advice and a quotation.
Here are some key details that manufacturers need to process your inquiry:
- The type of materials: For recycling plastics, it is essential to know whether it is in-house production waste, post-industrial materials, or post-consumer plastics that need to be processed. Different starting materials require different processing methods.
- The material properties of your plastic materials: Analyze the properties of your materials. Answer the following questions:
- What is the geometry of the material?
- What is the condition of the material?
- Is the material damp? How high is the moisture level?
- Is the material contaminated in any way? Have the plastic materials been printed? Is the material laminated?
- Does the material contain additives?
- Are the materials reinforced with glass fiber or carbon fiber? Are they long or short glass or carbon fibers?
- Information on the amount of material produced per day or month.
- Do you already have in-house material logistics? If so, what is the material flow like? Where and how is the material collected - indoors, outdoors, loose, or compressed?
Do you need more information on the details needed? You can find more information on this in our blog article: Buying a recycling machine: How to choose the right one for your company
Mistake #2: Disregarding design for recycling
Recycling doesn’t start with the processing of plastics but as early as product design. Design for recycling means selecting the materials and their composition for the product to be recycled easily at the end of its life cycle. PURE LOOP provides companies with detailed advice on how to optimize materials and product designs for recycling.
The challenge of processing materials that are difficult to recycle
Products made from mixed materials that are difficult to separate or that contain additives are not easy to recycle. These are materials that are made of mixtures of synthetic and natural materials, such as wood-plastic composites (WPC), for example.
There are similar challenges in processing materials in the textile industry: Materials used to make tents often consist of a mixture of TPO/TPU and polyester. This combination can only be recycled to a limited extent. The material can be pelletized and used for injection molding. A full recycling loop is not possible, however. Thanks to PURE LOOP working with a tent manufacturer, it has been possible to switch their material mix to PET-based materials with a PET coating. This design enables end-to-end recycling and shows how design for recycling can be implemented in practice.
Success Story: Project Re:Claim
Another successful implementation of design for recycling was achieved by PURE LOOP in cooperation with the Salvation Army Trading Company and Project Plan B in their joint venture Project Re:Claim. You can find more information on this in our press release on Europe's first recycling system for polyester textiles using ISEC evo from PURE LOOP or in our blog article: Post-industrial textile recycling: Innovative solutions for processing polyester textiles.
Mistake #3: Focusing on existing technologies
Many companies tend to rely on well-known or proven suppliers when choosing their recycling technology. However, it is important to keep an open attitude towards alternatives. But why? The recycling industry is constantly evolving. Innovative technologies often offer increased efficiency, more flexibility, and better material quality. If different technologies are not considered, there is a risk of missing out on potentials such as cost savings and faster throughput times.
Find out how to locate the right plastic recycling machine manufacturer for your recycling project in our blog: 6 tips on how to find the right plastic recycling machine manufacturer for your company.
Mistake #4: Looking at short-term costs rather than long-term efficiency
When companies choose recycling technologies, they often only look at acquisition costs. This can result in high costs in the long term. Examples include:
- High running costs
- Low recycled pellet quality
- Unreliability of the machine
So when you buy your recycling machine, don't just look at the acquisition costs. Find out more about the total cost of ownership, the throughput of the machine, the refeeding quotas of the recycled pellets, and possible downtimes and how these can be prevented. Some recycling machine manufacturers - including PURE LOOP - will help you calculate your upcoming investment. You can find out more about this in our blog article: Everything to do with costs and amortization when buying a recycling machine.
Mistake #5: Not taking advantage of financing options and grants
Another common mistake is to cancel projects due to a lack of funding or insufficient research into obtaining funding. However, it is precisely these that can be decisive in implementing the cost of recycling effectively.
This is how you can get the financing you need:
- Use financing models: PURE LOOP offers flexible financing options. That is how you can plan investment in your recycling project.
- Find out about funding opportunities: Many countries have programs that provide subsidies and grants for sustainable technologies. Please contact the relevant authority in your country for more information.
Mistake #6: Thinking of recycling as secondary
In many companies, recycling is often only seen as a way of meeting legal requirements. Thinking this way means that the opportunities offered by recycling projects are often underestimated.
Recycling is more than just meeting legal requirements. .
- Recycling and reusing production waste saves raw material costs and reduces the volume of waste materials.
- Using modern recycling technologies, such as ISEC evo, produces high-quality recycled pellets that can be fed directly back into production.
In addition to the commercial opportunities, protecting employees during the recycling process is often overlooked. Serious problems occur especially when using simple grinder systems:
- Health hazards due to fiberglass dust: Grinder systems that shred materials containing fiberglass produce fine glass fiber particles. These enter the ambient air that is breathed in and can cause damage to employees' health.
- Need for additional safety measures: Expensive air extraction systems are needed to reduce the health risks, which also increases running costs.
Using modern recycling machines, such as ISEC evo, not only minimizes health risks but also increases the efficiency and quality of recycling. Companies that invest in high-quality technologies at an early stage save costs in the long term and, at the same time, provide a safe working environment for their employees.
Find out more: You can find out more about the comparison of grinder systems and modern recycling technologies in our blog article:Technology comparison: repelletizing vs. grinding for injection molding materials.
Mistake #7: Lack of material logistics and unsorted materials during trials
A common problem in recycling projects is insufficient material logistics, which has a particularly negative impact on trials. For many employees, the correct handling of plastic waste materials seems to be of secondary importance. These are treated in the same way as collected waste. As a result, materials are often not sorted by type when they are delivered. This does not only affect the efficiency of trials negatively but also has a negative impact on the entire recycling process.
Why is material logistics so important?
Recycling technologies are designed to process specific materials such as film or non-woven fleeces. If these are contaminated with other types of unsorted waste materials, the following problems arise:
- More sorting work needed:: Foreign objects such as gloves, cola cans, or floor dust must be removed manually or mechanically before recycling. This incurs additional costs and takes time.
- Lower quality recycled pellets: Contamination affects the quality of the end product negatively and limits its reusability.
- Material is unusable:: Heavily contaminated plastic waste can often no longer be recycled and has to be incinerated. This compromises sustainability.
If you feed unsorted materials into the recycling process, you not only risk higher costs but also the loss of valuable resources. Optimized material logistics not only increases the efficiency of trials but also reduces the production costs of recycled pellets. This makes the price of the end product more competitive and improves the end-to-end sustainability of the recycling chain.
Make the most of your recycling projects
Many mistakes in industrial recycling can be avoided with the right preparation and well-thought-out processes. Not having a clear mission, using unsuitable materials, and neglecting employee health and safety - all of these stumbling blocks can significantly impair efficiency, costs, and quality.
If you insist on
- a carefully thought-out plan,
- using high-quality technologies such as ISEC evo right from the start, and
- optimizing material logistics,
you will have all the commercial advantages as well as sustainable results. That is how to turn challenges into opportunities - for your company and the environment.
PURE LOOP supports you during every phase, from the initial consultation and trials to the implementation of customized solutions. Together, we make sure that your recycling projects are efficient, sustainable, and commercially successful.