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RECYCLED PLASTICS BOOST CONSTRUCTION PERFORMANCE MAY/JUNE 2023 BRABENDER Marks 100 Years of Technology Leadership TODAY The Ci4400 Weather-Ometer ® 1954 Xenotest ® 150 1927 Original Weather-Ometer ® 1915 Solar Determinator ® 1977 Ci65 Weather-Ometer ® 1995 Ci4000 Weather-Ometer ® We have a record of success in predicting the future. For over 100 years, we’ve revolutionized the science of weather-durability testing. Our most advanced instrument, the Atlas Ci4400 Weather- Ometer ® delivers best-in-class performance and value. Its unmatched uniformity, capacity and precision have made it the platform of choice for testing labs worldwide. Learn more at atlas-mts.com . NEW! Introducing the Atlas Sealed Lamp Unique preassembled design makes the Ci4000 & Ci4400 Weather-Ometers ® easier to maintain.INSIDE PLASTICS ENGINEERING VOLUME 79 NUMBER 3 MAY/JUNE 2023 20 MASS APPEAL 3Dnatives, SPE’s new acquisition, has its finger on the pulse of the booming additive manufacturing industry 12 GET YOUR OWN! Plastics Engineering keeps plastics industry professionals informed of the latest news and in-depth reporting on state-of-the-art and emerging technologies that impact the R&D and processing of plastics products. This is the magazine every plastics industry professional NEEDS to read. 4spe.org/Subscribe 4 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR WHEN THE RAINS COME An innovative paving system from recycled plastic solves flooding problems in urban areas COVER STORY 2022 Folio Eddie Award Winner for Single Article in the Non-profit Professional Membership Association category. Honorable Mention in the same category for Range of Work by a Single Author. 2022 TRENDY Award for Most Improved Magazine. www.plasticsengineering.org | MAY/JUNE 2023 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 146 | SPE News 6 | Set Point Shapeways expands in AM; LIXIL debuts hybrid paver; Finnish composites plant 47 | Calendar 48 | Ad/Editorial Index INSIDE PLASTICS ENGINEERING VOLUME 79 NUMBER 3 MAY/JUNE 2023 9 | The Legal Angle How the FTC uses the Green Guides to analyze product marketing claims COURSE CORRECTION SPE’s technical programs director wants broader content at ANTEC and other events. 44 BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION REPORT 17 | Circle of Life Programs and grants seek to increase post-consumer recycling of PVC building materials. 20 | When the Rains Come An innovative paving system from recycled plastic solves flooding problems in urban areas . 24 | Reinforcing Concrete with Plastics Waste CRDC Global develops RESIN8, a mixed plastics waste additive that boosts concrete properties Low-cost housing designs benefit from use of waste plastics. 28 | Building Blocks Finnish firm taps plastics waste for rapid, low-cost construction of housing and commercial buildings. 32 | Paved with Good Intentions Plastics waste gets new life and positive reviews as an asphalt additive for roads and other hard surfaces. 42 | ANTEC Update The Composition, And Potential, Of Waste Plastics 40 | ANTEC Update PepsiCo sees biopolymers as key to sustainability in flexible packaging SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES Each batch of recycled plastic is different, so testing and analysis are critical for processing and quality. 36 2 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | MAY/JUNE 2023 | www.plasticsengineering.orgPatrick Toensmeier Editor-in-Chief (203) 777-1474 ptoensmeier@4spe.org Michael Greskiewicz Director, Sales & Advertising (203) 740-5411 mgreskiewicz@4spe.org Ryan Foster Art Director (203) 740-5410 rfoster@4spe.org Sue Wojnicki Chief Operating Officer (203) 740-5420 swojnicki@4spe.org Editorial & Publishing Staff President Bruce Mulholland CEO Patrick Farrey President-Elect Conor Carlin Director, Chapters ScottEastman Director, Secretary Lynzie Nebel Director, Finance, Treasurer James Waddell Elected Director Todd Bier Elected Director Praveen Boopalachandran Elected Director Jeremy Dworshak Elected Director Diane Marret Elected Director Gustavo Nechar Elected Director Margaret Sobkowicz Elected Director Ellen Lee Past President Jason Lyons SPE 2023-2024 Board of Directors Contributing Editors NANCY D. LAMONTAGNE ndlamontagne@gmail.com Nancy D. Lamontagne reports on science, technology and engineering. Topics she covers for Plastics Engineering include thermoforming, blow molding, medical plastics, packaging, and education and career development. ROBERT GRACE bob@rcgrace.com Robert Grace has been in B2B journalism since 1980. He covers design and business for Plastics Engineering and is editor of SPE’s Journal of Blow Molding. Professional memberships include the Industrial Designers Society of America. JENNIFER MARKARIAN technicalwritingsolutions@comcast.net Jennifer Markarian has been reporting on the plastics industry for more than 20 years, covering a range of technology topics. She is also the newsletter editor for SPE’s Palisades-MidAtlantic Chapter. ERIC F. GREENBERG Eric Greenberg focuses on food and drug law, packaging law and commercial litigation. Work includes regulatory counseling, label and claims review, product development, GRAS, food contact materials evaluations and clearances, and related areas. www.plasticsengineering.org | MAY/JUNE 2023 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 3 PEGGY MALNATI peggy@malnatiandassociates.com Peggy Malnati has over 30 years’ experience covering plastics, composites and automotive. She has organized technical conferences for SPE and served as board member and communications chair for SPE’s Automotive Division. GEOFF GIORDANO geoffgio@verizon.net Geoff Giordano has been a contributor to Plastics Engineering since 2009, covering a range of topics, including additives, infrastructure, flexible electronics, design software, 3D printing and nanotechnology. FROM THE E lectric vehicles seem destined to replace most gas- and diesel- powered cars and trucks. The changeover won’t happen soon, but it is coming, with 2030 regarded as a pivotal year for EV sales in the U.S. in terms of models available, pricing, consumer interest and regulatory mandates. Much of the reason for the changeover is, of course, environmental. EVs will reduce the amount of carbon emissions generated by conventional vehicles. This, in theory, will make the world a cleaner place and ideally have a positive impact on climate. There’s just one nagging problem in this scenario that so far defies solution. EVs must be charged on a regular basis. This will increase the amount of electricity generated by power plants, which in turn will boost their carbon emissions. Hence, as Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at The Heritage Foundation writes in an opinion column, “… when adding up the emissions required to produce and power the batteries of electric vehicles, EVs can create more carbon emissions than gas- powered cars.” Power plants fueled by emissions-free resources like wind and solar won’t add carbon emissions to their energy generation. Nuclear energy produces some CO 2 in uranium mining but does not create air pollution. Most power plants, however, are not emissions-free; they use natural gas and coal to generate electricity, which, even though these operations are cleaner than in the past, still release CO 2 and other greenhouse gases. Moreover, “70 percent of the world’s electric batteries are produced in China and 83 percent of China’s energy comes from fossil fuels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration,” Furchtgott- Roth writes. “The longer the range of the battery, the more carbon is used in the production process.” She notes that one expert calculates “that carbon emissions to produce a battery for a Nissan Leaf [EV] were equivalent to driving a gasoline-powered BMW 320d for 24,000 miles. For a larger Tesla Model S battery, carbon emissions used in production are equivalent to driving the BMW 320d for 60,000 miles.” “If battery-powered vehicles were able to be charged with emissions- free energy, then emissions from transportation could perhaps be reduced,” Furchtgott-Roth remarks. “But until emissions-free fuels are plentiful enough and reliable enough to meet demand and have a net environmental benefit, battery-powered vehicles will still rely on fossil fuels and will not reduce emissions (my italics).” What does this have to do with plastics? Quite a lot. This issue features our annual look at the building and construction (B&C) market and with it the growing use of plastics in materials for these applications (see pp. 6 and 16). Many articles focus on ways in which recycled plastics are trialed or specified for use with B&C materials such as asphalt, concrete and wood. Plastics add properties to these materials that make them easier to use, higher performing and less hazardous in terms of volatiles released during conventional mixing and installation processes. The U.S. and many other countries will need to build or expand power plants and the infrastructure that serves them to meet heightened demand for electricity from EVs. This will boost the market for mixing recycled plastics with conventional materials for new or expanded roads, sidewalks, building materials and other transport, structural and landscape needs. In the process, plastics’ circularity and sustainability will be enhanced by the large amounts of recyclate these applications require. One company that blends recyclate with asphalt is MacRebur of Lockerbie, Scotland. “With each kilometer (0.6 miles) of road laid using our MR products, we use up the equivalent weight of 684,000 [plastic] bottles or 1.8 million one-time-use plastic bags,” the company states. “One [metric ton] of MacRebur mix contains the equivalent of 80,000 plastic bottles.” The firm says independent labs confirm that its products significantly improve the stiffness and deformation resistance of asphalt while avoiding the embrittlement of oxidization, as evidenced by increased fracture toughness and fatigue life. Auto OEMs are investing billions of dollars in EVs. The plastics industry can hasten development of this evolving vehicle class with its advanced materials and process technologies and applications expertise. The need for greater electric power capacity will create demand for B&C materials, many of which, it appears, will consume huge amounts of recycled plastics in new or revamped mixtures. A win-win situation for both industries. PAT TOENSMEIER Editor-in-Chief ptoensmeier@4spe.org POWER AND PLASTICS 4 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | MAY/JUNE 2023 | www.plasticsengineering.orgI t’s inevitable that upon reaching a certain age we begin reminiscing about the “good old days.” I always hated when my parents did that. Mom would start her walk down memory lane with something like, “Don’t you miss the days when we…,” followed by a memory of something I almost certainly did not, in fact, miss. Camping in a tent as a kid was one of those memories. Mom remembered campfires and s’mores and catching lightning bugs. I remembered bug bites and rainouts and burned marshmallows. I was totally okay when we replaced vacations of sleeping on the ground with the relative luxury of adjoining rooms at a Holiday Inn with an indoor pool. That was progress! Mom, it seems, was left longing for the nostalgia of it all. This month, I find myself channeling my inner-Mom. You see, we have made the difficult decision to transition Plastics Engineering, a 79-year-old magazine, to a digital-only format. I feel myself already growing nostalgic for the good old days of print. Don’t get me wrong, this is exactly the right decision. Most magazine publishers made this transition years ago. Even with cost-savings from technical advances in digital printing, expenses to print and mail a physical magazine are skyrocketing. Paper costs alone have been increasing by double-digit percents almost monthly. Magazine printers have had to raise prices as their customer base continues to shrink. And U.S. postal rates have risen 15 percent in just the past year. So, if we are to continue to invest in delivering award-winning editorial content, we must reduce other costs. By eliminating the expenses of “Publishing’s 3 Ps”—paper, print and postage— Plastics Engineering will be well-positioned to serve the industry for another 79 years. The PE team is hard at work creating a truly amazing digital platform for the future. With it, articles will be timely, organized, archived and searchable. Readers will easily find the content they wish to read, whether by trend, technology or market. Content will be easily accessible and portable, designed to be read on either a desktop or portable device. And the same team of skilled journalists who write for Plastics Engineering will continue to deliver the same kind of information that won them the coveted TRENDY and EDDIE awards in 2022. Advertisers will realize the immediate benefits of this conversion, too. Their messages can now be delivered to specific segments of readers interested in their categories of products. We’ll also be able to deliver more detailed, actionable metrics about reader engagement with their products’ messaging—something today’s sophisticated marketers need and expect. Yet even though the new format of Plastics Engineering will represent a vast improvement in many ways, it will take me some time to get used to the change. Like Mom’s fond memories of my childhood camping trips, there are things I will miss about our printed magazine. I started my career in publishing in the early 1990’s, as a partner in a small company that published magazines for the packaging industry. I remember the excitement of seeing magazines we produced rolling off printing presses. I recall lugging a briefcase full of magazines all over the world, convincing packaging producers to advertise in our magazine to reach our audience of consumer-goods readers. It was an exciting time in publishing. The internet wasn’t a thing yet, so the primary way to get industry news was from print publications. The physical magazine was the culmination of my work. I will miss the days when the mailman delivered my copy of Plastics Engineering. I’ll miss thumbing through its pages and reading articles that catch my eye. I’ll actually miss magazines stacking up on my desk. But I also know most of you will applaud our decision. You’ll appreciate the environmental benefits of us not killing more trees for magazine paper, and of us lowering our carbon footprint by eliminating physical delivery of each issue. You’ll get the same great content but delivered in a way that’s more user-friendly. You’ll recognize this is how content is delivered in 2023, and that this is progress! I thank you all for your continued support of Plastics Engineering. I look forward to your comments and feedback about our new digital version. I am excited to explore how we can use new technologies to better serve our members and our readers. And I promise that, after this, I’ll try not to say, “Don’t you miss the days when we …” PAT FARREY CEO, SPE THOSE OLD, WISTFUL MEMORIES www.plasticsengineering.org | MAY/JUNE 2023 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 5SET POINT Shapeways Holdings Inc. hosted an open house at its Livonia, Mich., facility (formerly Linear AMS) on April 18. The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of the company’s renovated 36,800-square-foot (3,419-square-meter) additive manufacturing (AM) facility. Although the effective footprint of the building stayed the same, work over the last six months added more space for the CAE team and created a customer collaboration center on a mezzanine above the main production floor. Additionally, the company added seven polymer and three metal additive printers to the facility, which expands its ability to service a global customer base in the automotive, transportation, defense, aerospace, medical, appliance, industrial, oil and gas, and packaging industries. Then known as Linear AMS, the 20-year-old company initially was a custom injection molder and toolmaker for injection and compression processes. From the start, Linear was an early adaptor of metal AM to print components, details and geometries for injection and compression molds, features that otherwise would require electrodischarge machining (EDM) at a greater investment of time and money. In 2005 Linear became the second company in North America to acquire a direct metal laser sintering/ solidification (DMLS) printer from EOS North America, of Novi, Mich., which quickly brought interest from the aerospace industry. Over time, the Linear team grew so skilled at designing and printing conformally cooled (or heated) mold components in metals that it not only produced these slides, lifters and inserts for its own tools but supplied them to other moldmakers across North America. The company also added multiple polymer AM printers for prototyping and to manufacture gauges, SHAPEWAYS EXPANDS AM CAPABILITIES IN MICHIGAN LIXIL ROLLS OUT PAVER MADE FROM WASTE PLASTICS AND WOOD LIXIL Corp., of Tokyo, a manufacturer of water and housing products that include global brands such as Grohe and American Standard, has introduced a material called revia, which combines recycled plastics and wood waste for various applications. The first revia product, which was due to go on sale in Japan earlier this year, is revia pave, a paving material for sidewalks, plazas, parks and building exteriors. (LIXIL did not respond to requests for an update.) The paving material is said to resemble wood and has a textured surface that plays with light and shadow. LIXIL says it is comfortable to walk on, durable, weather resistant and strong. It weighs half that of concrete paving material, which expedites installation and job-site transportation. Created in 2011 through a merger of five of Japan’s most successful building materials and housing companies, LIXIL has 79 plants and employs about 55,000 in more than 150 countries. It says that to make revia it leverages its expertise in pulverizing and molding plastics in combination with waste wood that typically comes from building demolition. The product can be made from most household and commercial plastics waste, including composites and marine plastics. LIXIL claims that using plastics and wood waste to create one ton of revia that would otherwise be incinerated after use can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 82 percent. The material itself can also be recycled for use in revia products. Plastics waste has more than doubled globally over the last 20 years, largely comprising single-use plastics, yet only 9 percent is recycled, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Most plastics waste is incinerated or landfilled, polluting air or leaking chemicals into ecosystems. This is an urgent environmental issue. One way of minimizing the problem is to incorporate recycled plastics into building and construction materials including asphalt, concrete and other non- plastics (see reports beginning on p. 16). In Japan, 24 percent of plastics waste is recycled. In April 2022, Japan enacted the Act on Promotion of Resource Circulation for Plastics, to strengthen efforts to circulate plastics resources across the public and private sectors. Japan has progressed from recycling mainly PET bottles to closing the loop for other plastics, including containers and packaging for takeout and groceries. Still, some plastics are deemed difficult to sort and recycle by local governments responsible for collecting waste. Composites and packaging films are examples. These often are made from numerous types of plastics to enhance functionality and continue to be incinerated or landfilled after use. LIXIL plans to expand revia product offerings beyond pavers in the future. Part being additively manufactured in MS1 maraging steel in an EOS M 280 DMLS printer at open house. Photos by Plastics Engineering/Peggy Malnati continued on p. 8 On-demand digital manufacturer Shapeways Holdings held an open house to showcase its renovated additive manufacturing facility. Shown are (from left) John Tenbusch, director of operations; Leslie Campbell, board chair; Garlin Gilchrist II, Michigan lieutenant governor; Maureen Miller Brosnan, Livonia mayor; Greg Kress, CEO; and Dan West, Livonia Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. Courtesy of Livonia Chamber of Commerce 6 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | MAY/JUNE 2023 | www.plasticsengineering.orgThe long-time SPE member and Fellow of SPE, whose expertise in rotational molding and materials for that process shaped the direction and success of his career, died on Dec. 20, 2022. He was 80 years old. Muller was as close to being a renaissance man as anyone when it came to rotational molding. He learned about the process when he took a position in the plastics research division of General Tire Co., of Akron, Ohio, after serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1960 to 1964. “Bruce enjoyed teaching people and talking about rotational molding,” says Glenn Beall, a plastics industry veteran, SPE member and consultant. “He was a great information resource, and knew everybody in the industry.” Beall says Muller “was a technology guy, and proud of his technology, and he was right to be. He was in a field that was pretty mysterious to most of us.” Muller’s rotational molding expertise included pigments. According to Beall, “He could help in resolving color issues. He always had a booth at ARM (Association of Rotational Molders) conferences and people talking to him there. He should’ve charged $1,000 per hour as a consultant [for the information he provided]. Beall met Muller in 1980, when Beall was a product design consultant and attended an ARM conference in Chicago to learn about rotational molding. “I recognized him from SPE,” Beall recalls. “He taught me a great deal about rotational molding.” MattBushman, president of rotational molder Plasticraft Corp., of Darien, Wis., and president of ARM, remembers Muller as an “amiable guy who shared his knowledge about pigments and other rotational molding applications. He was very professional.” His expertise in rotational molding materials led Muller to form a business with his wife, Sheri, in 1978, called Accurate Color Inc., of Lodi, Ohio. Muller recognized that the relatively low-volume rotational molding industry was not getting the attention of pigment suppliers, much less resin producers. Seizing upon this opportunity, Accurate Color began compounding pigments for rotational molding and other processes and became a successful international supplier. Muller and his wife also started and ran a successful sister company, Accurate Compounding, across the street from Accurate Color. Muller joined SPE in 1969. He was active in the Ohio Fireland Section, and the Color and Appearance, Extrusion, Polymers and Additive Divisions. He was a charter member of SPE’s Rotational Molding Division, was elected a Fellow of SPE in 2004 and received the Past Division’s President’s Award in 2012. He joined ARM in 1981, and served on the board of directors as chairman of the Special Materials and PVC Committees, and was a frequent speaker and exhibitor at conferences. His efforts on behalf of the industry were acknowledged with the Charles D. Frederick Distinguished Service Award in 2001 and his induction into the Rotational Molding Hall of Fame in 2007. He was also a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. Bruce and Sheri sold Accurate Color and Accurate Compounding in 1995, and after a few more years in Ohio, relocated to Palm City, Fla., where he started a new company, Plastics Consulting Inc. Muller consulted for companies until he passed away. Born in Huntington, W. Va., in 1942, he pursued a college education at night school while in the Air Force, and married Sheri Philpot in June 1962. He is survived by Sheri, son Bru and his wife Aina, son Scottand his wife Camille, and three brothers, Conrad, Wayne and Brien, and Brien’s wife Emily. ROTATIONAL MOLDING EXPERT BRUCE MULLER Bruce Muller Materials recycling company Kuusakoski Oy will invest more than €4 million ($4.4 million) to build a shredding and treatment plant for composites at its Hyvinkää site in southern Finland. The plant will reportedly be the first such facility in Finland. The company, based in Espoo, Finland, says the plant will safely and effectively shred composites— plastics and fibers—for use as raw materials in the cement industry. Kuusakoski already supplies shredded composites for co-processing in cement production, where they can be used without residual ash. In co-processing, composite fibers are used instead of limestone and polymers are substituted for fossil fuel. The use of composites lowers CO 2 emissions significantly, according to President and CEO Mikko Kuusilehto. The investment includes the renovation of a building at the Kuusakoski Hyvinkää site, as well as construction of the new processing line. Some 35 percent of the investment will be financed by Business Finland through the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility program. The processing line is planned to be in full production by the end of 2025. The plant will consist of two shredders, several covered conveyors, a magnet and a dust control system. Dust control is especially important because the processing of composites creates large amounts of fine, harmful dust. “The demand for a recycling solution for composites is rising, as the amount of composites waste grows: wind turbines, airplanes, boats and other vehicles contain considerable and increasing amounts of composites,” says Kuusilehto He notes a common misconception about the materials that the new plant will produce: “It is good to understand that the shredded composites are not mixed with concrete. They are used in the production of clinker—a pre-product used to prepare cement— and no trace of fibers is left in the cement that is then used for preparing concrete.” KUUSAKOSKI IS BUILDING COMPOSITES SHREDDING PLANT Kuusakoski will shred and treat composite fibers and polymers for use in cement at a new processing plant. Courtesy of Kuusakoski Recycling www.plasticsengineering.org | MAY/JUNE 2023 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 7Next >