The PolyStyrene Loop foundation is aiming to build a demonstration plant by 2018 for sustainable recycling of the common packaging material EPS (Extended Polystyrene), in its work to support the circular economy.
The facility is designed to offer “an industry concept that can deal with the growing volumes of construction waste that will finally originate from the demolition of buildings in the coming decades”, with the recycling technology recovering bromine from EPS containing HBCDD (Hexabromocyclododecane).
The foundation is enhancing the Solvolysis technique developed by Fraunhofer IVV (Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging), with 23 people from various sectors of the European EPS industry, as well as Dutch national and provincial authorities along with EPS recyclers, embracing the initiative at a meeting at ICL-IP, a Dutch bromine supplier, in the city of Terneuzen.
Several presentations on the legal framework for EPS waste and recycling were given, including one on the Solvolysis technique and the business case for investing in it, as well as funding options for the project. The idea of including all parts of the EPS industry, including bead producers and converters, was “well accepted”, while it was also decided to create a non-profit foundation, PS Loop, to show the industries intention to form a recycling entity.
The ICL-IP facility has a Bromine Recovery Unit (BRU), which has been in operation since 2002 and works by dissolving polystyrene from EPS while maintaining the polymer chain, and is known as the CreaSolv process. The enterpreneurs hope to have the Solvolysis technique incorporated in the end-of-life technical guidelines for HBCDD containing polystyrene foam as an additional option besides incineration.