Extrusion International 4-2021

14 Extrusion International 4/2021 INDUSTRY NEWS „ With the new business year, Erich Fuerst has taken over re- sponsibility for the operational areas of the Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen (NGR) as COO fromhis long-time predeces- sor and company co-founder Gerold Barth. The plastics recycling machine manufacturer can look back on a successful business year and has now also been awarded the most important busi- ness prize of the province of Upper Austria. Successful Course Continues Erich Fuerst has been responsible for the operational areas of purchasing, production, logistics and quality assurance for the past year as operations manager of the Feldkirchen site. Gerold Barth, the company co-founder, who in the past 25 years has taken NGR from a small startup company and developed it into one of the leading companies in its sector, will now focus his ef- forts on the broader development of the Next GenerationHold- ing. Together with his fellow managing directors Wolfgang Stein- wender, CEO, and Thomas Pichler, Joint Partner and CTO, Erich Fürst recently received the „Pegasus 2021“ award. This business prize is awarded to the most innovative and successful compa- nies inAustria.Outofmore than200nominations,NGRachieved 1st place in the Innovation category andwas thus rewarded not only for the high degree of innovation, but also for the general business success, the strong growth especially during the chal- lenging times of theprotractedpandemic, and for achieving cer- tain CO 2 reductionmeasures. Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH (NGR) www.ngr-world.com „ TheBioSinnproject foundproducts andapplications forwhich biodegradation at the end-of-life is a real option. 25 fact sheets answer technical and regulatory questions for each application. The market volume of these applications was also estimated: in Germany, it is about 170,000 tonnes, in the European Union about 1 million tonnes per year. In the EU, several million tonnes of plastics end up in the en- vironment. In nature, in water, in the compost stream – every year, unhindered. Once there, it is often almost impossible to return them to the recycling stream: too small, untraceable, too costly. But there are plastic products that, even when used cor- rectly, don’t even make it into the recycling stream and end up in nature, inwater or in the compost. Andwe deal withmany of them every day. Would the use of biodegradable materials made from renew- able feedstocks be a sensible option here? Critics doubt that bio- degradation is of any bene fi t at all and rely on comprehensive reduction, collection and recycling of plastic products. They also fear that biodegradable products could induce consumers to dispose of the products in the environment. In the project “BioSinn – Products for which biodegradation makes sense”, that was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, experts from the nova-Institute in Hürth near Cologne investigated whether there are applications and prod- ucts for which biodegradation is a sensible or even the best end-of-life option. The selection criteria were that collecting the products (or their remaining parts), separating them from other organic waste or material recycling is not possible, eco- Report: „For which plastic products is biodegradation a viable end- of-life option?“ www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications/ nova-Institut GmbH nomically not feasible or does not take place in practice. Further criteria were that the in- put of microplastics into the environment can be avoided through the use of biodegradable materials or that indirect positive effects, a relevant secondary bene fi t, can be achieved through the use of biodegradable materials. Experts from the nova-Institute, together with the project part- ner Institut für Kunststofftechnik at the University of Stuttgart (IKT Stuttgart) and a project advisory board made up of repre- sentatives from industry, academia and politics, were able to identify 25 applications on this basis for which biodegradability is a good or even the best end-of-life option. These were exam- ined from all sides: in which environments exactly do the prod- ucts remain?Are there already suitable biodegradablematerials made from renewable raw materials for these speci fi c require- ments? How are current market or political framework condi- tions? In addition to the products used by end consumers, more un- known or inconspicuous applications have also been uncovered that cause a large plastic input into the environment. The result of the project is a brochure for decision-makers from industry and politics but also for the general public, with 25 fact sheets and extensive background information on biodegrada- tion. The fi nal report is provided in bothGerman and English. The full report is available in both languages here: Erich Fuerst is new COO of Next Generation Recycling Machines Pegasus 2021 in gold for NGRs innovative power (Photo: NGR)