Page 42 from: West Coast report + Plastics Special
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PLASTICS SPECIAL
MGG is also working alongside indus-
try partners to raise concerns about
hazardous chemicals being recycled
into new products. This includes bro-
minated flame retardants, chemicals
first introduced in the 1950s to ensure
fire safety in products that generate
heat. ‘Just one flatscreen television
can contain up to 150 000 ppm of
flame retardants. This is interesting
because modern screens hardly gen-
erate any heat,’ Slijkhuis says. ‘I sup-
pose there is the candle safety argu-
ment. But ask yourself; how many can-
dles do you use every year? Maybe a
couple during the holidays?’
ing the scrap trade. Despite the high
quality of MGG’s recyclate, the com-
pany has been stuck in ‘an endless
battle’ with German regulatory
authorities. Why? They won’t allow
the transport of processed end-of-life
monitors across the border. ‘One ship-
ment has been delayed for three
years,’ Slijkhuis complains.
‘It is ridiculous. Our recycling hub in
Steinach is less than 250km away from
our facility at Amstetten. ‘If it were a
product instead of recycled material, it
would take little over an hour to export it
by train,’ he points out. ‘Sadly, local offi-
cials have little knowledge of recycling. It
doesn’t help that Germany has 28 com-
petent authorities with different interpre-
tations of the rules regarding waste.
There’s simply too much red tape.’
MGG owner and director Christian
Müller-Guttenbrunn calls the situation
‘simply unacceptable’. That is why his
company is contributing to developing
a Europe-wide solution: ‘Fast-Track
Notifications’ (FTN). The concept can
be described as a professional network
of reputable recycling companies that
have been recognised as ‘pre-consent-
ed’ facilities by local authorities. ‘This
ensures the required notification
requests for each waste shipment are
processed much faster,’ the business-
man says. Adopting the new approach
will also give authorities more time to
crack down on illegal waste exports.
The good news is that the first FTN
was completed before the summer.
MGG is now investigating how to
improve this business model so that
waiting times can be further reduced.
Slijkhuis laughs: ‘I’m looking forward
to the day we can ship our plastics
without constant interruption.’
TESTING ALL THE SPECS
The recycler has an in-
house laboratory that con-
ducts daily tests to moni-
tor the quality of both
input and output. The
base plastic types are
identified by near-infrared
spectroscopy. The lab crew
further tests the density
and tensile strength of the
plastics, as well as the
moisture level and pres-
ence of heavy metals,
while also tracing colou-
rants and gloss.
Even particles smaller than
1 millimetre can be anal-
ysed, says laboratory
researcher Cornelia Wieser, who emphasises the importance of combining
qualitative and quantitative tests. Wieser and her team prepare a represen-
tative sample for all big bags marked ‘ready for sale’ and these are pre-
served in a dedicated storage unit. The most extensive sample analysis com-
pleted so far exceeded 20 000 fractions.
The fire safety issue fuelled an intense
discussion between NGOs, recyclers,
chemical companies and legislators.
There was even a proposal to intro-
duce an ‘incredibly strict’ norm of 10
ppm for recycled products, Slijkhuis
recalls. ‘This is not realistic. It would
require an absolutely perfect sorting
system,’ he laments. ‘Finally, the legis-
lators saw sense and set the threshold
at 500 ppm for recycled products. I
can live with that.’
OVERCOMING RED TAPE
Another challenge for Slijkhuis is what
he sees as rampant bureaucracy hurt-
Chris Slijkhuis:
MGG Polymers
processes 50
000 tonnes of
e-scrap plas-
tics per year.
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