How and where materials can be recycled and how different recycling streams work is often complicated to understand. Wood fiber composite recyclability depends on the following:
- The amount of wood fibers
- The geographical location of where the products is used/recycled
- The type of sorting technology used
Our latest development, the high performing grade Prime 20, was part of the study. The internal study looked at how the mechanical properties of recycled materials are affected when the composites enters the PP (polypropylene) recycling stream. Four different materials were used in the study, three of which where variations of Prime 20 materials and one recycled PP for benchmarking purposes. The materials were chosen to represent the broad range of our product portfolio. All our materials had a fiber content of 20%.
The results showed that all materials had no direct impact on the mechanical properties of recycledPP used in the study. The ability to recycle the material also is dependent on sorting technology being used. Using float sink tanks in the recycling process, a material with density over 1 g/cm3 will sink. Dependent on geographical location the material will either end up being used for energy recovery or end up at a landfill. A material below 1g/cm3 will be recycled. All of our materials with up to 20% wood fibers have a density below 1g/cm3 and will thereby float.
When using NIR (Near Infra Red) for sorting plastics, our materials with up to 20% wood fiber will be detected as a PP and therefore recycled in the PP recycling stream.
To conclude, all of our materials with up to 20% wood fibers can be recycled as PP in general waste streams. This can be compared to engineered plastics where most of them are not sorted by commercial processes as of today. So our high-performing composites are the perfect solution if you are looking for improving your product´s environmental impact. Prime 20 will have a higher recyclability level as it can be recycled in the commercially available sorting streams for PP. Recyclability being important but to us a circular solution is always possible and preferred, where used products are collected separately and re-produced into new ones.
Please reach out to us if you would like to read the full report from the test or have any questions about the study.
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