Far too much plastic still ends up in the trash. Although therecycling ratehas increased in recent years, it is still only 14 percent worldwide. Used plastics are a valuable resource in this respect.Covestrowants to align itself comprehensively with circularity and help make it the global guiding principle. To achieve this, the company develops innovative technologies to reuse plastics and return them to the value cycle - often in close cooperation with partners.

The goal of a new collaboration with the Zurich-based bag company FREITAG is the unlimited recycling of truck tarps, based on thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) from Covestro. At the end of their useful life, the tarps are to be recycled mainly chemically and used for new tarps or other products. It is important for the success of the project that the tarps are similarly robust, durable and water-repellent as the previous products. FREITAG expects it to be a few years before bags made from the tarps are mass-produced, but plans to put a first prototype on a truck as early as this year.

Sorting of plastics by type

At theK 2022trade show, Covestro will present these and a number of other developments for the unmixed recycling of used plastics. The company's focus to date has been on proven mechanical recycling, in which the plastic is chemically preserved, and more recent chemical recycling processes, in which the polymer molecules are broken down chemically. Other technologies of such raw material reprocessing - specifically enzymatic and pyrolytic - are under development.

Mechanical recycling is particularly suitable for polycarbonates. Numerous corresponding products from Covestro are already on the market, including polycarbonate blends for IT applications with up to 75 percent recycled material - besides products based on mass balanced raw materials. To facilitate recycling, the company is increasingly relying on monomaterial solutions for end products that feature simplified material separation. In addition, new plastic products are designed from the outset to be easier to recycle at the end of their useful life.

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Covestro AG published this content on 21 June 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 June 2022 07:33:06 UTC.