Sustainable Plastics - August/September 2021 - 23

inside at... PolyStyreneLoop
The market is waiting
eagerly for the output
of our plant
Loop-PS, the end
product produced at the
PolyStyreneLoop plant.
board breaks, these gases are
released. We are currently engaged
in testing a pre-treatment
step here, on location -
the uncompacted XPS boards
are delivered to us, we shredder
and compress them, during
which the gasses are released
but we do this in a vacuum. The
captured gasses are supplied
to a third party, who destroys
them. We are left with gas-free
XPS which we can then proceed
to process. The quantities
are relatively small - the gases
are condensed in cylinders,
transported to Germany and
destroyed. " The pre-treatment
step, she added, has proven to
exceed the 95% removal efficiency
for (H)CFCs stipulated
by the Montreal Protocol.
Bromine recovery
The bromine in the HBCD is
recovered for reuse by ICI, as
well. " In new flame retardants, "
said Tange. However, the bromine-based
flame retardants
produced today are 'a whole
different story' from the previous
generation of flame retardants.
Those, he said, including HBCD,
were additives; the new flame
retardants are built into the polymer
with long polymeric backbones
that provide the flame-retarding
benefits of bromine.
Moreover, bromine is not the
problem, he explained. Bromine
is used in many 'invisible' applications.
It's an ingredient in
cough syrup for children, but it's
also used in the printed circuit
boards in electronic devices,
and in cars, where it functions
as a flame retardant. It's used
as a drilling fluid in oil drilling
operations, in tire production, in
water purification - bromine is
used in a much broader range
of applications than most people
are aware of. "
With HBCD, he continued,
what has happened is that as
time went by, we gained experience
and knowledge that we
didn't have before. " Previously,
we weren't able to measure the
leakages into the environment
the way we can today, while of
course, it was there. Back then,
the analyses looked at milligrams
per kilo. Today, we're
talking about nanograms and
picograms. With the ban on
HBCD, we are now acting on the
knowledge available to us today. "
An important discussion in
that context is the amount of
HBCD that the end product
produced by PolyStyreneLoop
is permitted to contain. As
Alix Reichenecker pointed out,
while almost all the HBCD is
eliminated, a tiny bit always
remains behind. " We are allowed
to re-use the recycled
polystyrene if the UTC, the UnFor
the first time, we are
turning an unrecyclable
product into a valuable
circular plastic
intentional Trace Contaminant,
limit value is under 100 ppm.
Discussion arose as to whether
this should be under 10 ppm,
instead. However, in that case,
recycling would not be possible.
As the EU has committed
to reaching 10 million tonnes of
recycled plastics used in products
by 2025, it is unlikely this
limit will be tightened. "
Circular economy
A question that is often asked,
said Tange, is whether the project
is 'economic' - do the benefits
outweigh the costs? The answer
is less straightforward that
it would seem, especially when
the goal is circularity.
" So, sometimes you have to
look at 'economic' in a different
way. What does it cost to send
the material for incineration?
How to value the image boost
that comes with using sustainable
material ? Or disposing of
waste in a sustainable way -
after all, people pay to dispose
of their material with us. Or the
incentives offered for using sustainable
board? " he asked.
The amount of pressure and
legislation aiming to stimulate
the transition to the circular
economy is increasing steadily,
as target dates start to approach.
" As an industry, we
pledged to have 10 million tons
of recycled material in the market
by 2025. To make that happen,
we must start today. "
The present PolyStyreneLoop
plant will help the producers
of EPS and XPS to meet their
commitments. Moreover, the
cooperative is already looking
at the possibility of a second
plant. " We hope to build a
12-thousand-ton/pa plant once
the demo plant is up and running
in the coming years. In the
future, we could use the existing
demo plant to investigate the
recovery of other additives - for
example, from automotive and
electronics waste, that could
also be extracted using this
technology, " said Tange. " With
that plant, and perhaps even
a third one, we'll meet our European
recycling commitment
and be able to fulfil EUMEPS'
- the European association for
EPS - voluntary pledge.
August/September 2021
23
Sustainable Plastics - August/September 2021

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