Issue 6/2017

“The problem lies between the ears”

The compounding company QCP � ghts for the acceptance of recycling products and plans further growth in the use of recompounds to replace virgin material.

SPECIAL PRINT

4 Issue 6/2017

‹ MATERIALS

“The problem is not to produce high-quality products from recycled material, but rather to achieve acceptance of these products among both brand owners and customers,” says Marcel van Enckevort – a slightly disappointed but realistic assess-ment. In his view “the problem lies between the ears”, which means that products made of recycled material are generally associated with a negative image. And it is this image that QCP (Quality Circular Polymers) located in Geleen, Netherlands, wants to change. In the state-of-the-art compounding plant with two complete lines, QCP produces premium-quality recom-pounds made from PE and PP post-consumer waste. The current annual production rate amounts to 35,000 metric tons; the target for 2021 is 100,000 t.

Text: Karin Regel, Dipl.-Ing. (FH), K-PROFI editor

In 2014, Huub Meessen, Marc Houtermans and Raf Bemelmans – three experienced business men in the raw material industry – founded QCP with the clear vision to change the European plastics and recycling world. “Our target is to ef� ciently recycle a substan-tially higher share of the 25 million tons of plastic waste, most of which still ends up in incineration plants or land� ll sites,” says Marcel van Enckevort, Account & Application Development Mana-ger, who has been working for QCP almost right from the begin-ning and is deeply convinced of this idea. “If I didn’t believe that our approach will make a real difference, I would not have quit my former job.”

“ The problem lies between the ears”The compounding company QCP � ghts for the acceptance of recycling products and plans further growth in the use of recompounds to replace virgin material.

Marcel van Enckevort deplores that products made from recycled material are viewed much more critically than those based on virgin material.

In Geleen, compounds in different colors are produced that are already applied for premium-quality products like baby buggies and boxes.

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First products are already on the market

In Geleen, 52 staff members work in three shifts around the clock for the common cause – reducing the environmental impact and creating premium-quality starting materials. Their enthusiasm and the quality of their compounds have already convinced many customers as – instead of simple recompounds – QCP sells ready-made compounds suited to replace virgin material in sophistica-ted applications.

“We do not intend to enter into competition with recycling compa-nies operating across Europe. Our target is to replace virgin material with our compounds, which are slightly lower priced and, most im-portantly, have a roughly 75% lower CO2 footprint,” says Marcel van Enckevort.

QCP produces two compound groups, one of which is based on HD-PE and the other one on PP. While HDPE is mainly used for hollow ar-ticles, PP compounds are suited for a wider range of applications. “We are very proud of the fact that a baby buggy designer who, like us, is committed to sustainable solutions decided to cooperate with us and that the � rst buggy made entirely from recycled material is about to enter the market.” While the frame of this baby buggy is made from a PP compound supplied by QCP, r-PET is applied for the fabric-covered seat.

Other products currently produced on the basis of Re-PP compounds made by QCP are caps, paint containers and hospital waste bins. These waste bins are UN certi� ed as products designed for hospi-tal applications are subject to extremely stringent requirements in terms of rupture and impact resistance. “All our materials are tho-

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QCP’s starting material comes from the yellow bag collection system in Germany and the Dutch counterpart.

roughly tested and provided with a data sheet,” says Marcel van En-ckevort. QCP has a fully equipped laboratory with a small injection molding machine for test bars and a small-scale blown � lm line for the production of sample bottles.

HDPE recompounds for hollow articles

While PP recompounds are mainly used for blow molding applica-tions, hollow articles are predominantly produced from HDPE com-pounds. “We currently cooperate with all large brand owners in the � eld of bottles for the non-food sector.” The watering can of spe-cial shape and color, made to 100% of reclaimed materials is the company’s pride and joy. “A watering can de� nitely is a rather com-plex product.” The brand owner was very explicit that the watering can made from recycled material should look exactly the same as its counterpart already sold in the market. According to the key ac-count manager, QCP succeeded in ful� lling this demand.

When asked for potential odor issues with products made from re-compounds, Marcel van Enckevort replies: “We are frequently con-fronted with this question, which is rather annoying, to tell the truth. You would never dream of checking the smell of a plastic pro-duct made from virgin material although it has a speci� c odor, too. Especially when several products are stacked, it takes a while until the odor released when the products are separated disappears. This is also true for our products. And here again we are faced with the mentioned problem – the lack of acceptance.

As products made from reclaimed material are generally assumed to have an unpleasant smell, everybody takes a sniff. And against this background, Marcel van Enckefort poses the following question:

6 Issue 6/2017

‹ MATERIALS

“Why should a container for wall paint not have a speci� c odor?” To-gether with his QCP colleagues he is eager to achieve a mind shift among processors and brand owners for the good of the environ-ment. They are highly committed to this ambitious goal. It goes wi-thout saying that they also strive to produce quality products with no or minimal odor.

Twin lines in continuous operation

QCP operates sophisticated state- of-the-art equipment for the pro-duction of these quality products. The complete investment volu-me of EUR 35 million in the Geleen chemical park area comprises a hall of 380 m length, in which both PE and PP lines of almost identi-cal construction are installed according to the material � ow. 380 m of feeding and conveying systems, washing, crushing and separa-ting equipment and � nally the compounding lines – an impressive ultra-modern factory. The scrap material processed by QCP is sup-plied by Suez, a French recycling group that is one of the investors of the large-scale project. The waste comes from the German yellow bag collection system and its Dutch counterpart “Plastic Heroes”.

The material is delivered in the form of pre-sorted PE and PP ba-les. “The input material is supplied by eight trucks per day, i.e. about 35,000 tons per year, around 75% of which we can process”, says Marcel van Enckevort. A conveying system leads the bales in-to a shredder for initial comminution. Metal particles are then re-moved by means of metal detectors. After the � rst separation sta-ge, the material is conveyed into a cutting mill and the resulting � akes with a size of approximately 1 cm are then guided to the fric-tion and hot washers, both supplied by B+B Anlagenbau. From this point onwards, both material � ows are subjected to slightly diffe-

rent treatments aimed at removing foreign plastics and � lm resi-dues by density separation. Eventually, a color sorting plant sepa-rates the � akes into a bright and a dark batch.

Both complete lines are of almost identical design and work fully automatically – from bale feeding up to the compounding system.

Each compound produced is subjected to thorough tests in the internal test laboratory and provided with a data sheet.

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Compounding line for outstanding quality

Before the � akes are fed into the compounding lines, they are ho-mogenized in large silos. “After processing, our HDPE raw materials are so pure that they are already ideally suited for most applications. Only a small part is provided with additives during compounding.”

Marcel van Enckevort: “Our HDPE recompounds are mainly used for hollow artic-les. We currently cooperate with many large brand owners.”

Mechanical tests are compulsory for all recompounds produced.

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Depending on the application, additives are incorporated into the PP � akes to enhance impact resistance and rigidity. QCP guarantees that all recompounds produced in Geleen are made to 85% of PCR materials. In order to achieve optimum compounding, QCP opted for a KraussMaffei Berstorff extrusion solution of cascade design. The � akes are melted, homogenized and degassed in the � rst twin-screw extruder before they are led via an MAS high-performance � lter to the second twin-screw extruder, the actual compounding extruder, where the additives are added.

Using this process, QCP currently converts about 35,000 t of input material into 26,000 t of high-quality compounds. “Today, the bot-tleneck of this line technology is the � ake processing system that has reached its capacity limit. This is why we will increase the hard-ware by the end of this year to achieve a compound quantity of 35,000 t. Next year, we will further extend the line to allow 50,000 t of � nal product to be generated.” This is how Marcel van Enckefort describes QCP’s business growth perspectives.

The other line components are already rated for a total line output of 50,000 t/y. But this is not the � nal goal of QCP. By the end of 2021, QCP wants to have increased the total capacity to 100,000 t/y. Two additional lines similar to the two existing ones would be required for this purpose – suf� cient space has already been provided on the Geleen premises. In view of the fact that the � rst two lines were put into operation after a construction and installation time of only ni-ne months, there is only one hurdle to overcome – the acceptance of products made from reclaimed material. Let’s all contribute to tack-ling this challenge! ‹

www.qcpolymers.com