‘Freeing the world from having to make new plastic. Forever’. These were the words used by Popular Science, the US-based green technology and science publication, to describe the potential of MBA Polymers’ sustainable polymer technology. The magazine interviewed MBA’s founder, Mike Biddle, in April 2014 about his mission to eliminate plastic waste and harness the value of ‘above ground mines’. Mike explains MBA’s story and highlights how our technology stands to revolutionise the way society tackles waste plastics, while creating high quality, lower carbon recycled plastic for use in manufacturing.

So how does MBA separate plastic polymers from complex waste streams?

While the exact processes are confidential, we can give you an overview of some of the different techniques used in plastic polymer separation and how we create five high grade plastics for use in manufacturing: ABS, HIPS, HDPE, PP and Filled PP.

Firstly, we receive waste plastic material for processing from our JV partners in the UK, Austria and China. This is largely automotive shredder residue (ASR), electronic waste and municipal plastic waste. We eliminate any non-plastics, grind the waste into tiny pieces, and ensure that the material we’re processing is scrupulously clean. We can then begin separating the plastics by type. And this is no mean feat.

While metals can be easily separated based on their colour, density and electrical and magnetic properties, plastics have overlapping densities and nearly identical electrical and magnetic properties. And any type of plastic can be any colour. Similarly, some plastics are flame retardant, some are reinforced and many are covered in coatings and dyes. All of this combines to make plastic polymers challenging to separate.

Speaking to Popular Science, Biddle said: “It’s hard to do. That’s why no-one else is doing it. No-one is processing this to the extent we are.”

MBA has adapted separation techniques from industries including mining, metal recycling and food processing, as well as inventing its own techniques. We have 60 patents already registered, and more in the pipeline.

Broadly speaking, multiple separate procedures isolate the five target plastics. Each then goes to a stainless steel silo for blending, before being melted and extruded into spaghetti-like strands. These are sliced into mustard seed-sized pellets – this is the product that we sell to our customers.

Here are some plastics recycling techniques available to plastics recyclers, as covered by Popular Science:

• Removing ferrous metals – an overhead magnet belt consisting of a strong magnet with a conveyor belt moving around it, plucks ferrous metals from the stream of cleaned, ground, incoming waste and drops them into a separate chute.
• Removing non-ferrous metals – an electro-magnet inside a rotating drum creates a force field at the end of a conveyor belt. Non-ferrous items, like aluminium and copper, jump off the belt and into a chute, repelled by the magnetic field.
• Sorting materials by weight – Mixed material moves onto an inclined grading deck. A fan blows pressurised air across the deck’s surface and lifts the lighter items. The vibrating deck sends heavier and lighter items to different sides of the incline.
• Sorting by chemistry – A polymer-specific surfactant is added to a mix of plastic fragments, and the slurry is placed in an aerated bath. Air bubbles attach to the target plastic and float away from the other materials.
• Sorting by colour – Bits of plastic pour past a photoelectric detector, which identifies those of a particular colour. The detector communicates with an air gun, which blasts any particles of a different colour with air, knocking them out of the waste stream.

To read the whole Popular Science article, please click here.

In a circular economy, sustainable design is fundamental to ensuring materials stay in use for longer and waste is viewed as a vital ‘nutrient’ to create new products. Designers have the power to develop a blueprint for products that require fewer natural resources and maximise the use of alternative, secondary raw materials. Increasingly, leading companies like Philips, Nissan and Nike are exploring how to use more sustainable materials and best practice in design for disassembly or maintenance. These companies know that the future of their businesses depends on their ability to adapt.

This new thinking goes against the tide in terms of how products have been designed and marketed for the past 50 years. Manufacturers have profited by designing products that become obsolete ever more rapidly – the average lifespan of a mobile phone in the West is now 18 months – in the never-ending drive to sell more ‘stuff’.

Now, there’s a cultural shift starting to take place, particularly among big business, as the challenges of resource scarcity, energy security and waste become ever more urgent. Instead of ‘designing for the dump’, as collaborative consumption expert Rachel Botsman puts it, companies are actively rethinking how they can grow by switching to service-based business models and creating a new breed of resource efficient products that don’t cost the Earth to make.

Coca-Cola:Turning plastic bottles into chairs

Coca-Cola worked with designers at Emeco to reduce the volume of plastic drinks bottles going to landfill. Emeco transformed the recycled PET bottles into a durable, scratch-resistant chair for heavy duty use. 111 recycled bottles are used to make each of the company’s iconic ‘Navy Chairs‘.

Nissan: Stepping up the use of recycled components

Nissan is using its electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF, to showcase the approach its beginning to take to incorporating more recycled materials in the manufacture of cars. The company is pulverising end-of-life bumpers to create materials for repairs and new bumpers. It’s also using recycled aluminium wheels to make high quality suspension parts, fibres from recycled plastic bottles for the dashboard and floor insulation, and recycled plastic bottle caps for a variety of different components. All this shows what can be done with ingenuity and innovation at the design stage. A more widespread adoption of this approach would go a long way to cutting carmakers’ use of natural resources and of course, reduce waste.

Nike: Informing sustainable design with the MAKING app

Nike’s MAKING app, launched in 2013, helps designers to make informed sustainable design decisions. It ranks materials based on their environmental impact areas, focusing specifically on water, chemistry, energy and waste, as well as whether the material uses recycled or organic content. MAKING is powered by data from the Nike Materials Sustainability Index (MSI). By using the app or exploring the publically available MSI, designers both within Nike and beyond can rapidly browse and compare materials as they navigate the creative process.

If you’re a manufacturer seeking high quality recycled plastic to create more sustainable products, please contact us.

Enter our sustainable design competition

What’s the smartest use of recycled plastics you’ve seen? Let us know and we’ll feature the most innovative examples in our next newsletter. To enter, simply contact us with a link to the product and explain why you think this is a great example of sustainable design.

This month, we’re putting the sustainable design spotlight on Interface, the global carpet tile manufacturer. Interface has been blazing a trail in sustainable business since the 1990s, when its founder, Ray Anderson, decided to revolutionise the way the company did business. He was inspired to move from ‘pillaging’ to protecting the environment by developing a new restorative business model and creating innovative, sustainable designs.

And so the Interface ‘Mission Zero’ commitment was born. The company aims to make no negative impact on the environment by 2020…and it’s making progress. In January 2014, Interface announced that it was operating with 100% renewable energy, using virtually zero water in its manufacturing processes and has attained zero-waste-to-landfill status. It has also reduced its carbon footprint by an impressive 90% since 1996.

According to the Interface ‘Design with purpose’ story, ‘design’ only applies to the surface of a product, but, the company says, for them it goes much deeper. It views design as a ‘mindset’, a way of continually innovating to exceed customer expectations. And of course, it aims for all its products to be sustainable while delivering great quality and performance.

Let’s look at an example of Interface’s approach to design in action. The Interface Net Effect collection of carpet tiles is inspired by the sea and manufactured using up to 81% recycled content, including recycled nylon fishing nets…

Discarded or lost fishing gear (including nylon fishing nets) account for some 10% of marine litter, according the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The nets drift for many years, ensnaring species including turtles, seabirds and marine mammals. They also damage ecosystems and gradually enter the food system. Clean-up operations are complex and costly. However, Interface spotted a business opportunity in addressing this issue, one that would also help local communities.

Working with the Zoological Society of London, it is collecting fishing nets on the Danajon bank in the Philippines, and building a commercial viable supply chain to transform this post-consumer nylon into raw material for new carpet tiles. The project, called Net-Works, gives the nets a value and therefore incentivises communities to organise beach clean-ups and avoid discarding nets in the first place. Local people benefit from an additional revenue stream, while Interfaces builds a restorative loop in carpet tile production and benefits financially by avoiding the need to purchase virgin raw material.

The Net Effect collection features six modular carpet tiles options with a design reminiscent of swirling currents, thereby connecting people with the emotions and memories they associate with the seaside, while evoking the Net-Works partnership.

To learn more about the Net-Works partnership, please click here.

The Restart Project is an exciting new social enterprise based in London, UK, that empowers people to repair and maintain their electronic goods. By keeping electronics in use for longer, the charity aims to help slow the avalanche of e-waste and reconnect people with electronics. Founded in 2012 by Janet Gunter and Ugo Vallauri, it holds community and workplace events across the capital, whereby people learn how to increase the lifespan of their electronic and electrical equipment.

With electronic waste now the fastest growing waste stream in the world, Restart says it wants to encourage consumers to buy for longevity, and move beyond the culture of constant upgrades and disposal. With laptops in Western countries typically being replaced every two years and mobile phones every 18 months, they have a tall order on their hands…

But their energy is infectious, and they’ve struck on something really interesting here, both in terms of bringing communities together and reconnecting people with products. In an increasingly resource-scarce world, consumers will need to get to grips with repair and maintenance, and projects like Restart are preparing the ground for this to happen.

The charity is being supported by the Transition Network, Unltd and Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Programme, and is reaching out to groups across the world keen to replicate its work.

For more on the Restart Project, please click here.

Our processing plant in Worksop, UK, has just received the first load of automotive shredder residue (ASR) from our JV partner EMR’s new recycling plant. The delivery of 20 tonnes of plastic is now being processed and will be transformed into high quality plastic resin for use in manufacturing. EMR opened its new Oldbury plant, which is the largest in the UK, in February 2014.

“This first delivery marks the beginning of an exciting new phase of expansion for MBA,” says Nigel Hunton, CEO, MBA Polymers. “We’re delighted to be working with our partner EMR to scale up our production capacity in the UK, and look forward to a steady stream of high quality feedstock from Oldbury.”

The news of this first delivery follows the announcement in January 2014 that MBA plans to expand its Worksop production capacity by 40% to 50,000 tonnes a year, with the support a multi-million pound cash injection.