Polyplastics Group Announces Recycling Initiative to Include Recompounding Service

Engineering plastics supplier Polyplastics Group, based in Japan, announced its Duracircle initiative for recycling plastics. Phase one of the initiative will be the opening of the company’s Duracircle recompounding service business by March of 2024. This business will offer mechanically recycled materials.

The aim of the recompounding services is to perform horizontal recycling, recycling products back into the same products, which is considered difficult in engineering plastics due to the demanding performance requirements.

Pre-consumer materials are anticipated for use as the raw materials for Polyplastics’ recycling. Post-industrial materials with known manufacturing histories that are free of contamination can be more uniform that post consumer materials, facilitating recycling. Examples include hot runner and non-conforming products.

In addition to expanding Duracircle to markets outside of Japan, Polyplastics plans to develop and offer recycling technologies for post-consumer recycled materials as well.

Polyplastics has set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Its product portfolio includes polyoxymethylene (POM), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), liquid crystal polymer, PET, cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), and long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFT). Polyplastics Group has offices in North America and Europe in addition to East and Southeast Asia.