Current Location：Home > NEWS > Combating plastic waste: New standard for more recycling

Combating plastic waste: New standard for more recycling

share:    Updated:2024-01-23 00:00:00

Too little plastic is recycled and recycled, and mountains of waste are growing worldwide. Standards such as the new DIN SPEC 91481 can pave the way for plastic waste to a circular economy.

Plastic waste is everywhere: it pollutes oceans, rivers and lakes, collects in the soil, in forests and even on glaciers – with catastrophic consequences for humans, animals and the environment. However, plastic is indispensable: Whether as packaging in automotive construction, for medical devices or for the expansion of renewable energies – it is and remains an important material.

One way to reduce plastic waste: recycling and recycling. However, this is where the problem is, because high-quality recycled plastics, i.e. recycled plastics, are more expensive than new goods and still too little is recycled. This is mainly due to the lack of standards for recyclates and the lack of digitization in industry.

Classify waste and recyclates by data quality – ensure better recycling

In order to increase the proportion of recycled plastic and its quality in the long term, a consortium of 19 organisations from research and industry has developed DIN SPEC 91481. The new standard describes specific requirements for the classification of recycled plastics and plastic waste on a polyamide basis according to data quality levels for use and (internet-based) trade. The document is aimed at the manufacturing and processing industry of polyamide recyclates and is intended to facilitate their trade in the products.

"DIN SPEC 91481 goes further than the current standards on the market in decisive points: it is considering polyamide as a material for the first time, It captures both waste and recycled materials and opens the door to significantly more digitization in the circular economy," says Christian Schiller, founder and managing director of Cirplus, which initiated the development of the standard.

Standard creates clarity and comparability

By classifying recyclates according to the amount of data available for the material, so-called Data Quality Levels (DQL), the industry is provided with a uniform language – and a large barrier to using recyclates in commercial products is removed. The long-term goal is to establish a circular and digitized plastics industry.

First digital product passport for recyclates

In addition, the new DIN SPEC includes a concept for a digital product passport for plastic recycled and waste. This digital solution creates transparency and makes the entire life cycle of the material comprehensible. Uniform data collection, storage and transmission make it possible to classify and compare waste and recyclates, which in turn facilitates their marketing or distribution. Reuse. The aim is to boost investment and increase the demand for recycled materials and the recycling rate – thus closing the cycle for plastics.

"With the new standard, we want to increase the acceptance of polyamide recyclates on the market," says Prof. Dr. Hans-Josef Endres, Managing Director of the IKK Institute for Plastics and Circular Economy and Head of the DIN-SPEC consortium. "In the long run, it is intended to pave the way for a paradigm shift: further standardization and the expansion of digital solutions will be decisive for a true plastics circular economy. "

The identification and labelling of recyclates is based on the methodology developed in DIN SPEC 91446 (published in December 2021), the world's first standard for high-quality plastics recycling and digitization. It was adopted at the beginning of 2023 by the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) as the basis for the use of recycled materials in the automotive industry (VDA 284) and is currently being converted into a European standard. The new DIN SPEC 91481 will also become the European standard.

DIN SPEC 91481 was attended by: IKK Institute for Plastics and Circular Economy, Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), Kunststoff, Institut Lüdenscheid, KIMW Prüf- und Analyse GmbH, cirplus GmbH, APK AG, BASF SE, Circularise B.V., ENNEATECH AG, GS PRO GmbH, HOFFMANN revVOSS GmbH, KOSTAL Automobil Elektrik GmbH Co., KG, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, MKV GmbH Kunststoffgranulate, Remondis Recycling GmbH Co. KG, Röchling Industrial SE KG, S1Seven GmbH, TecPart, Verband Technische Kunststoff-Produkte e. V., Ter Plastics Polymer Group, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Vossloh Fastening Systems GmbH.