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Due to the repeated use and processing of the plastics the polymer chains will be damaged so much that the plastic becomes brittle or yellowed. Additionally, the plastic waste is often made up of a mixture of different plastic types which cannot be separated from each other. Such mixtures of incompatible plastics have a significantly negative impact on quality.At BASF’s research scientists are working on developing additives that can specifically stabilize recycled plastics and improve their properties. This enables plastics to be mechanically recycled multiple times and and material loops can be closed more effectively and more often.Daniel Santoro, lab technician at the Application Center for Plastic Additives in Kaisten (Switzerland), compares the optical properties of a recyceld film with and without a stabilizer package. Photo: BASF

More and more electric cars are registered worldwide every year. At the same time, the raw materials for the batteries are limited and mining them is associated with negative environmental impact. BASF researchers at the Ludwigshafen site are therefore developing a new chemical process to recycle high-purity lithium from these batteries. This will also avoid waste and reduce the CO2 footprint compared to existing recycling processes.The recycling process creates a substance called “black mass,” which is further processed by lab technician Stefan Schleicher (left) and chemist Dr. Birgit Gerke (right). Photo: BASF

In addition to silo foils, stretch films, asparagus films and bale nets, polypropylene baler twine has now been included among the plastic products used in agriculture that are collected by the initiative ERDE. Photo: ERDE

Designed for Recycling: rPET yoghurt cups Photo: Starlinger Viscotec

(Source: PrintCYC)

(Source: PrintCYC)