Axion Polymers hosted a fact-finding visit to its two Manchester recycling facilities by the Lead MEP and appointed Rapporteur for drawing up regulations on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
Julie Girling, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, viewed the complex processes used to extract plastics from end-of-life vehicles at Axion’s Trafford Park and Salford sites during her tour in August.
Girling learnt how Axpoly recycled polymers, derived from automotive shredder residue and electrical end-of-life feedstocks, are extracted and processed for use in a variety of new items, from drainage and ventilation products to vehicle components.
Plastic extracted from end-of-life vehicles at the Trafford Park facility is further refined at the Salford advanced processing plant.
Concern is growing among plastics recyclers over a European Parliament proposal to set a concentration limit of 10ppm for the flame retardant decaBDE in substances and products that could negatively impact the recycling of plastics from vehicles and electronic equipment.
Keith Freegard, Axion Polymers Associate Consultant, said: “A sensible and pragmatic limit is needed for the trace levels of banned BFRs in recycled plastics, to match those set under existing EU REACH regulations. That will allow for the growth of more waste plastics re-processing in Europe, but a 10ppm limit is a very big challenge.”
Girling has been dealing with recycling legislation for 10 years as an MEP.
“There’s no reason why one piece of plastic waste from Europe should be in an ocean anywhere. But to prevent that we have to make significant investment in developing our European recycling business and we’ve been discussing the different pieces of legislation that go towards that; some of which is very important to Axion’s business,” said Girling.
“Recycling is something that we all want to do. Not many people are prepared to accept that it’s expensive, requires a huge amount of capital investment and the payback has to be given some certainty and the only way to do that is through legislation, which is why we need to discuss the content of the legislation in some detail.”