Recycling

Plastics General Polymers has spent many years developing our recycling capacity, methodologies, and personnel. Our focus is on providing clean, pure regrind that can be directly used back in an injection or blow molding process. This saves our customers the time and expense of pelletizing regrind in order to clean it up.

Sorting and Identification

We start by paying attention to what we are recycling. It is imperative to keep different types and grades of plastic separate to avoid contamination. Scrap plastic can come in mixed together. We identify the plastics before they enter our inventory and then ensure that we separate them before we recycle them. We work with our suppliers to get as much information as we can about the scraps (molding rejects, sprues and runners, large parts, etc…) so that we can properly categorize them by material type and grade. Simple tests can also be one to determine at least the Class of material that is being recycled and whether or not it has fillers in it.

Eliminating Contamination

It isn’t enough to keep the plastic separate and recycled together with only the same type and grade of plastic. Feeding the correct material to the granulator or shredder is only the first step. The recycling process and machinery itself need to be managed to ensure that they don’t contaminate the regrind. Metal and dust are common threats to regrind quality. Leftover material from a previous run is also a possible contaminant and a common threat.

Metal Contamination

Metal can clog gates and damage injection molds. Metal can be imbedded in the plastics scrap either as an insert or loose inside the scrap gaylord box. Care is taken to not put metal into the granulator to start with. Metal can still be generated inside of the granulator as the blades chip or wear down. All of our granulators have magnets on the output of the cyclone to catch any metal that is generated. Our largest system has a self-cleaning drum magnet and a metal separator after that for any non-ferrous metal (brass, aluminum, etc…) that might be in the regrind

Dust and Fines Contamination

Dust can clog vacuum feeders and create dirty molding conditions. Our largest system runs the types of plastic that generate the most dust (polyethylene and polypropylene typically). It has multiple stages of dust separation that help to make the resulting regrind free of dust and ready to feed into a vacuum loader.

Material Left in the Machine from a Previous Recycling Run

Some machines can be dedicated to a single type of plastic, thus eliminating any carryover of different materials. The typical situation, however, is that the same machines process many different kinds of materials. This is where the importance of cleaning the machine comes into play. Anything that is still stuck in some corner or crevice of a granulator, shredder, conveyor, blower, or any other equipment in the recycling system can find its way into the next material being run. This is why we perform a Full Clean Down of every piece of machinery when we switch materials. This ensures that no cross-contamination occurs.

Machine Maintenance – Blade Changing

It is imperative to keep all of the machinery in good running order. General mechanical and electrical maintenance is important as will all machinery. A specific requirement for plastic recycling machinery is to change and sharpen the blades and cutters regularly. Dull blades not only slow down the processing rate, they tear the plastic instead of cutting it. This generates more heat in the plastic and also more dust in the recycling process. More heat is not good for the plastic or the machinery. More dust means that there is more dust that needs to be removed. Sharp blades eliminate these problems

The End Result – Clean Usable Regrind

It has taken many years to develop the knowledge and systems of how to properly recycle plastic into clean usable material. We hone our knowledge and processes every day with each new scrap we deal with. We keep our customers in mind while we are recycling our scrap. We want our material to give you the best molding or compounding result possible. Get in touch and see how our clean regrind can benefit your business.