Extrusion International 6-2018

34 Extrusion International 6/2018 RECYCLING This year, Gneuss obtained food con- tact approval from Anvisa, the first- ever in Brazil. This approval is for the Gneuss PET process for recycling PET post-consumer and post-industrial waste to sheet for thermoforming to food contact containers. It is a signifi- cant contribution toward increasing polymer recycling. In Latin America, the Gneuss recycling process has also achieved the stan- dards set by the Colombian food safe- ty agency, Invima and its Argentinian counterpart, Senasa for processing 100 % post-consumer PET waste to food contact products. In Europe, the Gneuss recycling pro- cess has passed the EFSA challenge test for the processing of 100 % post- consumer PET. A study by the British charity for pro- moting recycling, “Waste and Re- sources Action Programme” (WRAP) in 2016 showed that with the help of the GneussRecyclingProcess, itwaspossible to take post–consumer thermoformed PETpots, tubs and trays fromhousehold waste and recycle them back into the same products, for food contact. Unlike the re-processing of PET bottle flake to sheet for thermoforming, this process is a truly circular one. The study was published under the title: “Development and optimisation of a recycling process for PET pots, tubs and trays”. Thanks to the unparalleled devola- tilisation performance of the Gneuss MRS extruder, contaminants such as oils, other harmful volatiles and also odours are efficiently removed from washed PET scrap without the need for pre-drying or any other heat treatment of the material prior to ex- trusion. Avoiding the need for heat treatment of the material prior to ex- trusion saves not only investment and energy costs, a whole inflexible pro- cess is eliminated, together with the risk of damage to the material. The polymer is processed extremely gently in the low shear MRS extruder. The final product has excellent colour (low yellowing) and transparency. In addition to the food contact ap- provals for PET, this year Gneuss ob- tained approval from the American FDA for the processing of post-con- sumer polystyrene to food contact products. Polystyrene post-consumer Gneuß Kunststofftechnik GmbH Mönichhusen 42 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany www.gneuss.com Since the first “Letter of Non Objection” from the American FDA in 2009, the Gneuss recyclingprocessbasedaround the MRS extruder has received a large number of approvals for processing up to 100 % post-consumer and industrial polymer waste to food contact products waste can be reprocessed on the Gneuss MRS extruder to sheet for foamed and rigid food contact con- tainers. In 2009 and 2011, trials by the WRAP organisation already showed that with the help of the Gneuss MRS Re- cycling Process, it is feasible to achieve the conditions of the FDA challenge test for processing post-consumer polypropylene and polyethylene for food contact applications. The results of this test were published by WRAP under the titles “Commercial Scale Mixed Plastic Recycling – a report on the technical viability of recycling mixed plastic packaging waste from domestic sources on a commercial scale in the U.K“ and “Development of a Food-Grade Recycling Process for Post-Consumer Polypropylene“. MRS Recycling Process approved for Food Packaging Worldwide