Extrusion International 6-2023

46 Extrusion International 6/2023 SUSTAINABILITY – FROM THE RESEARCH line. The trials in Technical Centre 2, on the other hand, concentrated on the regranulation of PET fibres using the OMNIboost recycling system and the closed-loop re- cycling of HDPE bottle caps with the MRSpure extruder. A highlight on the evening of the first day was a gala dinner in the historic Kaiserpalais, which was held to celebrate Gneuss' 40th anniversary. Here, company founder Detlef Gneuss not only looked back on the past of his family-run company, Dr Stephan Gneuss also gave an outlook on the coming years and the continuation of the Gneuss success story. The event was a great success and once again dem- onstrated the innovative strength and technological ex- pertise of the East Westphalian company. The interna- tional participation and consistently positive reactions of the visitors emphasised the strong interest in sus- tainable technologies. A look into the future promises further pioneering progress in the field of recycling and sustainable production processes. Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH Mönichhusen 42, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany www.gneuss.com Gneuss Technology Event hall at the company headquarters in Bad Oeynhausen/Germany Put in Extra Shifts for the Circular Economy? In order to move closer to the target of a comprehensive circular economy for plastics (and save its partners extra shifts), the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University is playing a leading role in research projects, in which, together with numerous partners, the value-added chain of plastics recyclate is being holistically optimised. The 32nd International Colloquium Plastics Technology will provide an insight into this. T hrough the consistent use of recyclate as a com- ponent of plastic products, it is possible to drasti- cally reduce emissions (such as CO2 or the discharge of macroplastic and microplastic into waterways) and also to cut back on crude oil requirements. However, this sustainable multiple use of valuable raw materi- als is not yet achieved in all areas. In the packaging sector, for example, only around 11 % of the recyclate is currently being used for the renewed production of packaging. Various factors are making this difficult, for example: • limited availability of material with high enough purity, • fluctuating properties, • limited acceptance of plastics recyclate, • inadequate economic attractiveness of using recyclate. Without strong partners and without innovative approaches, e.g. for material and process development, players in the plastics industry can only meet these challenges with a great deal of effort and at great cost. In various research projects, IKV is examining possibilities for holistically optimising the value chain of plastics recyclate. Picture 1: Fundamental process of the AI-supported recipe development of compounds