Axion Polymers is a finalist in the 2019 National Recycling Awards for the ‘Team of the Year – Commercial’ category for their efforts in driving innovation in recycled polymer applications.

Axion’s experienced team was selected for its united approach in pulling together to develop bespoke recycled polymers to suit clients’ specifications for use in a wide range of new product applications.

Plastics are recycled from end-of-life vehicles (auto shredder waste) and refined into high-quality engineering polymers capable of matching the qualities of virgin material at the company’s two processing sites. This complex process requires dedicated knowledge, teamwork and close liaison with clients at every stage of the development process.

The team delivers high performance for diverse clients through a thorough understanding of their requirements from initial contact; the laboratory team working on the physical properties of the polymer following through to personal visits at clients’ premises and working with their production teams. From that stage, the team helps the client to set up their machinery for best finish and results and existing procedures are checked to ensure they are in place to deal with any customer concerns.

Laura Smith, Commercial Operations Manager says: “We’re prepared to invest a lot of time and effort in the development phase of the project because what we’re looking for are long-term relationships with our customers based on trust. And, ultimately, that is to everyone’s benefit.”

Judith Clayman, Axion’s General Manager comments: “All credit is due to the excellent team at Axion Polymers that builds long-term relationships with customers to deliver successful, sustainable – and crucially locally-sourced – raw material supply chains with all-round benefits. It’s an environmentally-friendly and economically-viable ‘virtuous circle’ of which the whole team is justly proud.”

She adds: “What was once considered a waste material is being turned into a valuable raw material resource: plastics from scrap cars going back into new vehicle components, as well as a host of different applications, from furniture to roof tiles. I’m very proud of our team that is driving the circular economy by working together to meet the customers’ diverse needs in every respect.”

The Awards ceremony will be held at The Hilton, Park Lane, London on June 27th 2019.

A 500ppm limit of flame retardant decaBDEs within recycled compounds and articles that looks set to be agreed by the EU Commission soon has been welcomed by Axion Polymers as ‘leaving the door open’ for plastic recycling and the use of recyclate in new products.

The proposed 500ppm level in recycled plastics will be a ‘workable’ solution, although it will be tougher to achieve than the proposed 1,000ppm in line with most REACH and RoHS regulations. Virgin polymers have a 10ppm limit.

“Professional companies that have spent time trying to inform and address the EU Parliament in the management of decaBDEs in recycled plastics will welcome the recast of the EU directive as a sensible way forward,” comments Keith Freegard, Axion’s Associate Consultant.

He believes that advanced separating, sorting and refining plants can hit the 500ppm limit for output plastic resins, saying:  “It also means we can continue recycling plastics at our Trafford Park and Salford facilities, and crucially, that our customers can continue to use recycled plastics in eco-design components along circular economy principles.”

However, while the 500ppm is a workable compromise, the planned review in the EU after just two years could present further business challenges for recyclers, according to Keith, who believes this timescale is ‘too short’ for long-term projects.

He points out robust industry evidence about treatment of previously-banned legacy additives, such as those in the automotive sector. Research shows that it takes approximately 10 years for the effect of a ban in new products to be seen in the infeed material at the recycling plants.

“For a review of the acceptable level of decaBDEs in recycled plastic mixtures, industry should show the regulators how the rate declines over time as eventually these legacy additives are mostly eradicated in new components,” continues Keith.

Since before 2012 when decaBDEs entered the REACH SVHC list, the effect from not using these chemicals was already being seen. With car manufacturers reducing their use since 2008-2012, Keith asserts that a similar ‘ramp down’ would be evident in waste plastics but delayed by the average lifetime of a vehicle – around 13 years.

“Hence recyclers may well be seeing trace levels of decaBDEs tail off from 2020 to 2025 and onward to 2030. Any review must be based on firm evidence from European recyclers about how detected levels are changing with time, which could be used to estimate a scientifically-based ramp-down rate for mixtures and articles.”

The United Nations Basel Convention are meeting at CoP 14 in Geneva at the end of April, where they will address a set of treatment guidelines for the WASTE plastic raw materials which are the input feedstock to advanced recycling processes inside Europe and also exported around the world as waste raw materials.

Expressing concerns about the ‘sometimes high levels’ of decaBDE and other legacy additives within part-processed waste plastics sent for export, Keith highlights the need to set a ‘sensible and pragmatic’ level in these materials. The European CENELEC treatment standard uses 2,000ppm as the basis for deciding to ‘separately remove and treat’ waste plastics in WEEE products.

He argues that the level set for input waste streams to recyclers should be higher than that for output polymer products. This is because final, accurate separation of BFR-containing plastic particles is done using advanced technology in refining plants.

Allied with this should be a tougher regime for the global movement of waste plastics that do not meet the strict controls. “Those materials should be processed in the domestic market, ensuring banned chemicals are removed and supporting further investment in large-scale technical plants in Europe,” continues Keith.

He warns that exporting banned flame retardant plastic to Asia, without proper controls in place, risks ‘cheap, uncontrolled’ imports back into Europe of goods in which the banned chemicals have not been removed.

Concluding, he asserts that setting ‘sensible and pragmatic’ levels for decaBDE limits in waste plastics moved across the world would:

• Ensure a ‘level playing field’ for high-tech recyclers
• Stop the escape of valuable resources to other countries
• Help to ensure that imported goods made with recycled WEEE or ELV plastics meet EU safety standards
• Encourage much-needed investment in European and UK recycling infrastructure, further developing the transition to a circular economy for plastics

Keith adds: “How the EU will implement the findings of the Basel Convention on waste plastic controls remains to be seen. We need less export of poorly-segregated, shredded mixed plastic waste from WEEE and ELV where the levels of legacy additives are difficult to measure and probably not very well recorded.

“And we need more reasons to invest in dealing with our legacy additive-containing waste plastics at home using best available technology.”