Martin Baumann, Vice President Sales at EREMA North America (ENA), opened the Discovery Day 2017 in Ipswich with the words: "Not only the recycling industry, the entire plastics industry as a whole is experiencing drastic change." This statement corresponds with the remarks made by Patty Long, Executive Vice President of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS), who, as keynote speaker, elaborated on the increasing relevance of recycling in the North American plastics industry. "Members of the entire plastics industry are calling for more sustainable management of plastics through innovation and the creation of products that are designed for recycling, from inception to end use", says Patty Long. In order to tap the full potential of recycling in the best possible way, EREMA relies on increased and above all stable recyclate production quality with its systems. With a total of over 650 EREMA systems in operation, the USA and Canada rank among the most important sales markets for EREMA recycling technology. "There is one aspect, however, which sets the USA and Canada aside from other markets – and that is their enormous growth potential. The change of thinking in the industry will without doubt be intensified by China no longer being an international customer for post-consumer waste plastic. As, unlike waste plastic, high-quality recycled pellets can still be exported to China, this represents a great opportunity for plastics recycling in North America," says Martin Baumann, summing up. The focus of the technical presentations was above all on the recycling of clean production waste and post-consumer recycling. The filter system is crucial, especially when recycling municipal post-consumer waste, to process heavily contaminated plastic to make high-quality recycled pellets. In connection with this, the new EREMA business unit POWERFIL was presented for the first time. The proven melt filters are now also available as individual components for existing extrusion plants.
ENA Technical Center expansion
Participants were given an insight into the recycling solutions presented in the form of live demonstrations on four EREMA systems. Thanks to the addition of an INTAREMA TVEplus RegrindPro at the Technical Center, existing and potential customers from the USA and Canada now have a total of five recycling machines at their disposal for material trials. The new addition to the machines which make up the Technical Center is a brand new RegrindPro, with top technology for the efficient processing of regrind material. It features a high-performance EREMA Laserfilter which enables you to remove unwanted impurities even from heavily contaminated materials – including contaminants such as rubber, silicone, paper or aluminium which are otherwise difficult to filter out. With this new machine at the Ipswich, Massachusetts facility, ENA can process an even broader range of materials – from clean production waste and regrind to heavily contaminated post-consumer material. "We offer our existing and potential customers the opportunity to recycle their material live on site. Thanks to the five recycling machines which are now available we can address customer requirements with even greater precision. With our trials the technology can be customised to meet the exact requirements of the respective material and product. At EREMA customers base their decision on facts and the pellets they hold in their hands," says Mike Horrocks, CEO EREMA North America.
The recycling systems at the EREMA North America Technical Center at a glance:
• New: INTAREMA® 1108 TVEplus® RegrindPro with Laserfilter
• INTAREMA® 1108 T with EREMA melt filter SW RTF
• INTAREMA® 1108 TVEplus® with EREMA melt filter SW RTF
• INTAREMA® 605 K
• ISEC 301E – Integrated Shredder Extruder Combination from EREMA's sister company PURE LOOP
