Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022 - 31

sustainability
cled material. Among others,
the company has tried grinding
up the soles of sneaker rejects
and extruding this with recycled
PE, creating a material that
could be used to make in-store
seating. At the end of life, this
can be reground and used, at
least in part, to create another
new product. Another experiment
involved mixing broken
down textile fibres very similar
to dryer lint into recycled PE
powder, which is mostly used
for rotomoulding. The blended
material was successfully
turned into a rotomoulded chair.
For Pizzato, who has a background
in architecture, it has
become second nature to look
at the potential for using recycled
materials in the fittings
and furniture used in stores.
" TPU, fibreglass, textile fibres
- using industrial waste as
your basic material for props
or even tiles for window flooring:
the sky's the limit. And if
customers can see with their
eyes and touch with their
hands the products made out
of recycled material, it makes
the storytelling around circularity
far more tangible. "
As always, however, price
considerations play a role, although
here, too, progress is
being made. As Pizzato pointed
out, the industrial waste
generated by the big brands is
premium-quality material that
is highly suitable for recycling
into new products. Recycling,
however, requires eff ort and
investment in infrastructure.
Yet, while it may be more convenient
or less cost to landfill
it or otherwise dispose of this
waste, it still costs something
to do so. If, instead, the infrastructure
needed for eff icient
recycling were in place, the
waste from such a manufacturing
site could become a source
of profit, she said.
" I really hope that, as manufacturers
come to be aware
of how harmful our present
approach is that this is the direction
we move towards, " said
Pizzato. " There's so much money
to be made out of this! "
Going forward
The pandemic was a diff icult
time for Arch & Hook, as, with
so many stores closed, no
one needed hangers, Pizzato
pointed out. Yet in challenging
times, businesses get creative
in order to survive. Arch &
Hook had established a supply
of diff erent types of recycled
polymers and started to look
at other potential application
for their materials. " The pandemic
forced us to broaden
our scope, both geographically
and product-wise, " said
Pizzato.
Next to the development of
in-store furniture and fixtures,
the company also looked at
another part of the process in
fashion and retail: transport. Its
newest product is the AutoBox,
a lightweight, collapsible, reusable
shipping box made from
the same Arch & Hook Blue rPP
resin the company was using
for its hangers.
" And looking ahead, we are
dreaming big, because we
really want to make huge impact, "
said Pizzato. " We want to
branch out in as many industries
as we possibly can, to diversify
outside of retail. "
There is still so much work
to be done and so many customers
to be convinced of the
need for change. " As we tell
our customers: the fewer the
number of diff erent materials
used in a product - a piece
of furniture or a fixture - the
easier it is to recycle at the
end of life. It all comes down
to design. Can we redesign,
reengineer a product to make
it fit for recycling at the end
of life without aff ecting its
performance? Do we need
adhesives, screws, bolts or
are there other solutions? Our
customers are sensitive about
their design, but there is still
so much that can be done 'behind
the scenes' as it were to
improve the quality and manufacturing, "
she explained.
What Arch & Hook is doing,
she added, is bringing that
awareness to the table: of the
need to select the right materials
during the design stage and
the diff erence design and engineering
can make. " And once
it becomes the rational choice,
customers come on board, " she
concluded.
PET recycling line
High-quality rPET for high-quality products
VacuFil is an innovative PET recycling line with
direct feed to your pelletizer, spinning line or other
downstream application. The Visco+
unit takes
care of the requested IV boost with simultaneous
homogenization. Hence, VacuFil ensures the exact
melt quality you need reliable and reproducible!
IV-increase up to 30%
IV-homogeneity
Compact size
Spinnability POY, DTY, FDY, BCF
Patent pending
215x144_AZ BBeng_VacuFil_FIN.indd 1
13.05.22 10:59
May/June 2022
31
http://www.bbeng.de
Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022
