Recycling: PolyWaste technology wants to make the term "plastic waste" obsolete

In an interview with K-MAG, Peter Barker talks about the PolyWaste technology as well as what makes it "too good to be true" and what contribution it thus makes to environmental protection.

What is special about the PolyWaste Technology?

Peter Barker: With PolyWaste, PlasTech Recycling Ltd has developed an elegant technology coined to cost effectively transform low-value used plastics into a homogenous molten substrate as feedstock for immediate extrusion and moulding into quality and affordable plastic products.

It uses an innovative, unique and patented process to simultaneously melt and mix used plastics so that infeed mix materials (plastic waste) generally do not require washing, blending, drying, shredding, granulating or pelletizing beforehand. 

This process significantly reduces the handling and processing costs associated with in-feed material preparation and ultimately produces extrusion-ready plastics at an estimated 60 percent cheaper than conventional recycling methods.

Our focus is to provide the solution to problematic comingled and contaminated single use waste materials that are not able to be recycled economically using traditional recycling technologies.

How did you come up with the idea?

Barker: PolyWaste Technology was conceived by a recycling and irrigation industry leader, Mr Ross Collins (now deceased) of R&M Collins Pumps based in a regional town of Moama in New South Wales, Australia in response to pitfalls recognized in global plastic recycling processes.

Ross had a passion for finding solutions to the world's plastic recycling problems and was the holder of several patents for plastics recycling technologies prior to his invention of the technology.

PlasTech Recycling Ltd continues to bring this important and innovative invention to commercialization in order to provide a much-needed solution towards solving the world’s waste plastic issues.

Exhibitors and products around recycling:

• Mixers
• Size reduction equipment (crushers, shredders, grinders)
• Screening machines, classifiers, dedusting systems for plastic pellets
• Extrusion lines for compounding
• Recycling plants

What contribution do you make to the environment and the society?

Barker: The PolyWaste Technology has been designed to address the most prolific form of problematic waste plastics, being comingled (mixed) plastic waste materials, whether rigid or soft and/or lightly contaminated that pollute the environment. In doing so, traditionally discarded and rejected plastic waste now has a value well above disposal to landfill or other end of life processes such as energy to waste.

With waste plastic now having a value that can be recognized and easily upcycled into value added products, both developed and underdeveloped economies can benefit from recycling plastic instead of disposing of it. The opportunity to clean up long term plastic waste deposits in the environment can also be realized, leading to healthier river systems, oceans and beaches. 

The economic and environmental benefits of upcycling all plastic waste are substantial and further enhanced by the reduced dependence on new plastic production.

Is there anything that makes your work particularly challenging?

Barker: The most challenging aspect of our work is to convince potential customers and investors to support the commercialization of such a disruptive technology. The most common initial response is that the technology is 'too good to be true'. However, with practical demonstrations, samples and technical data to support the validity of the technology, we are making headway.

Over the past two years, travel restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have made it even harder to promote the technology on the world stage from Australia.

What goal have you set yourself for 2022?

Barker: We have recently entered into a Joint Venture collaboration in The Netherlands to promote PlasTech Recycling and our PolyWaste Technology to the EU. Further R&D testing will be done using specific waste streams gathered from across Europe in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new technology.

Our prototype PlasTech Mixer Melter is scheduled to be up and running in The Netherlands before Easter 2022. In addition to the above, will release our commercial model from within Australia in readiness to contract for production, license agreements and additional Joint Venture opportunities in strategic regions around the world. 2022 is destined to be a landmark year!

How do you think the plastics industry will develop over the next few years?

Barker: At PlasTech Recycling, we have hope and confidence that the growing voice of the people around the world calling for change and further regulation to reduce our dependency on plastic, demand and support better alternatives and use of our natural resources will be realized.

As mentioned above, the issue is not just one of improving recycling capability, but there is a desperate need to curb the exponential growth of new plastic being manufactured and legislate to make the manufacturers of plastics to be accountable for the whole life cycle of the products they produce.

Petroleum resources are finite, so the above needs to happen. The linear lifecycle of plastic must be addressed by making full use of the resource in a circular economy.

In playing our role, the PolyWaste Technology provides the ability to harvest and repurpose comingled and contaminated waste plastics. I foresee that this technology will enable government and community to clean up the existing plastic waste in the environment.

In bringing economic value to all used plastics, it will enable communities to find a useful purpose for all used plastics and, in time, make redundant the term 'waste plastic'.