APK of Merseburg, Germany and Royal DSM, which supplies specialty engineered nylons including basic nylon 6 through DSM Engineering Plastics is now on mission to address "end-of-life" for these films using APK's newscycling process. This unique solvent-based physical process makes it possible to recover high-quality re-granulates with properties close to virgin plastics, from complex mixtures and multi-layer composites (so-called multilayer barrier packaging). For this mkission, APK is building a new plant which is scheduled for startup in fourth quarter of 2018. “Moreover, the Newcycling process is highly cost-efficient and offers a competitive, sustainable material source. The re-granulates, generated from multilayer PE/nylon 6 packaging waste, can be used again in demanding flexible packaging which contributes to the target of a circular economy,” explains Florian Riedl, APK’s head of business development.
