On the lead-up to the Plastics Recycling World Expo in Europe we have been catching up with speakers from the free-to-attend conference theatres. This week we spoke to Florian Riedl, Director Business Development at APK.

Florian is the Director Business Development at the company APK AG. APK who owns a special solvent-based recycling technology (Newcycling®) that enables the separation of the polymers in multi-layer packaging and mixed plastic waste. He leads the purchasing, sales and business development department of the Newcycling® division. One of Florian's key responsibilities is the development of strategic suppliers, customers and partners. 

Florian will be speaking on ‘Solvent-based recycling – the alternative to chemical recycling’ in the Plastics Recycling World Expo conference theatre. 

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 What are the biggest challenges facing the market today and how can this be overcome?

The demand from brand owners and converters for high-quality plastic recyclates is growing much faster than the availability of such materials. In order to meet this demand, more complex and mixed waste streams need to be recycled in a way that the material can be used back into packaging. That makes new innovative recycling technologies essential.

In your opinion, what do you consider to be the greatest development in your industry in the last 3 years?

Beside new recycling technologies, such as APK’s solvent-based Newcycling process, there had been great developments during the last years in the area of waste sorting. A better pre-sorting of the waste supports the efficiency of every recycling technology, both mechanical, solvent-based or chemical recycling.

How do you see the sector developing in the next two to five years?

During the last two years it has already been observed an enormous increase of investments in the recycling sector globally, both in new waste sorting and recycling facilities and in the development of new recycling technologies. Driven by the growing demand for high-quality plastic recyclates this development will continue and even accelerate in the coming years from my perspective.

You will be speaking at AMI’s plastics industry expos in Europe in September, could you give us a preview on what you will be talking about?

Most chemical recycling technologies break down the polymer chains to monomers or other chemical base units, and afterwards the monomers are synthesized again to polymers. Both steps are quite energy intensive. I will present with the solvent-based Newcycling technology an alternative to chemical recycling processes, that is on the one hand very energy efficient as it keeps the polymer chains intact and on other hand enables the replacement of virgin plastics in a wide range of applications. 

See Florian speak at Plastics Recycling World Expo Europe.