ML Polyolefins with an award for regranulate with rubber filling

Partners developed a technology for the secondary use of polypropylene film waste granulate and rubber from car tyres in large-scale products like grass grid. For this solution, the consortium received an award in category ‘Plastic processing technologies’.

‘We are very proud of the prize we have received. Our company’s business idea is to protect the environment by minimising and recycling waste. Our R&D department is constantly working on new formulations of recyclates to manage difficult-to-recycle waste, as in the case of this project, where regranulates of film and rubber from car tyres were used. It is our industry’s response to the environmental challenges’ – said Tomasz Mikulski, CEO of ML Polyolefins.

The project is in line with the circular economy rules, according to which manufactured materials should have as long a life cycle as possible. This is the model that the European Union is aiming for with the introduction of the Green Deal and goal of achieving climate neutrality on the continent by 2050.

‘This is a major achievement for the Cluster and our partners. Supporting R&D activities, in addition to issues such as integration, joint promotion, international cooperation and education, is one of the key areas of our activity. On the other hand, cooperation between science and business is the basis for the further development of companies’ – told Piotr Wojciechowski, managing director of Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster.

The granulate of polypropylene film and rubber from car tyres were used to make a prototype of the finished product, a stabilising grass grid. This is an example of the practical application of the developed technology.

‘The project involved the use of homogeneous tyre rubber powder with a grain size of less than 0,5 mm as a filler for polypropylene regranulate. The prepared rPP-GTR composition was the input for the injection moulding process. The difficulty was that the compound contained a minimum of 50% rubber filler. Thorough research into the technical parameters of the material allowed the injection mould to be made and adapted’ – explained prof. Dariusz Sykutera, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology.

The entity linking the participants and leading the work was the Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster Tool Valley. The project was supervised by the Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, which also invited specialists from Professorship of Lightweight Structures/Polymer Technology in Chemnitz. However, the implementation of the technology and the use of the developed compound in the final product was on the part of business partner ML Polyolefins.