We all know about fair trade coffee by now. But did you know that there is a decent chance that you will be drinking your coffee from a machine made out of recycled plastic in the future? With the Closing the Loops research project, NHL Stenden managed to use recycled plastic to fabricate parts for a new Senseo coffee machine, together with waste processor Omrin, recycling company Morssinkhof and producer Philips. It is fanplastic!
How can you use the mountain of plastic waste to make a new part for a Senseo coffee machine? Researchers and students of the Closing the Loops research project asked themselves that question. Over the course of three years, they managed to recycle waste into a plastic known as polypropylene. And more important still: this recycled plastic meets the high-quality standards of Philips. It is a unique achievement, which takes plastic recycling into a new direction.
Recycled plastics were mainly used for simple products up until know, such as roadside posts, picnic tables, or new waste containers. Would it be possible to use recycled plastics in consumer products as well? That was the big question Closing the Loops was trying to answer. You can imagine the use of plastics in appliances comes with a high requirements in terms of quality. Consider safety, mechanical and thermal properties, injection moulding quality and aesthetic requirements.
This is why NHL Stenden students extensively tested the recycled plastic. And they did so successfully, because the resulting plastic is comparable to oil-based plastics in terms of quality. Better yet, the recycled plastic can be made in any colour and any gloss. It also means that recycled plastic can be applied in a range of other production chains as well.
A National Test Centre Circular Plastics is being set up in Heerenveen, to further research the wealth of possibilities. Students and researchers of NHL Stenden will use this test centre to continue their research into developing even better techniques for sorting and recycling plastic packaging. In addition to Philips, IKEA has also joined the consortium. Chances are that recycled plastic will find its way into everyone’s living room in a few years!
