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A Bit Deeper Dive into Recycled Material Certifications

Writer's picture: Ned PattonNed Patton

I really was not able to cover the entire business of what certification organizations are really doing, especially when it comes to recycled plastics.  When you take apart a composite, no easy feat by the way, what is left has to have value to someone or it was not worth the trouble to take them apart.  And as I talked about last week, that is where the certification of the recycled materials is critical to ensuring that they can be reused and the resulting product will be safe to use and meet all of its requirements. 


I like this pic because it makes the point that there is a real problem when it comes to recycling plastics and what you do with what gets recycled.  If you take a good look at this it is pretty easy to see that if you just melted it all down and tried to make something of it, you would likely have a big mess. 

The problem is even more complex with recycled resins and fibers from composites.  It is fairly easy to see how the recycled fibers can get certified to be safe for use because there are standard structural tests that can be done on them.  And since they are really just textiles, all of the textile tests and certifications can also apply.  Things like how well they will stick to new resins, how flexible and workable they are, how well they can be spun or woven into a larger sheet or product form and how well that product form will perform in a new high performance application. 

The same is more difficult when it comes to the recycled plastic that comes from separating the glue (resins) from the strings.  That is because the plastic, especially for thermoset composites like fiberglass, is effectively destroyed in the process of separating it from the fibers.  The same is not true of thermoplastic composites, but since the bulk of the composites that need to be recycled are good old fiberglass, it is the broken down resin that needs to be somehow reused.  For that there are only a few good solutions. 

So let’s get to the problem with certifying recycled thermoplastics first, and we can get to the thermosets later on.  At least this is the tack that the plastics and composites industry has taken so far.  The lead pic in this post is actually from an article about how DNV has received accreditation to certify their recycled plastic materials to GreenBlue’s Recycled Material Standard.  I talked a bit about that last week, but this is actually a pretty big deal for the recycled plastics industry.  If a recycler can get DNV certification for their products, they will be able to sell them into a much broader, and potentially regulated market, like for airplanes, cars, critical structures for buildings, and other structural parts that require material certifications. 


The other standards institution of course is ISO (International Standards Organization) of ISO 9001 fame.  There are several ISO standards that apply to recycled composite materials and the recycling process itself.  ISO 14021 certifies the recycled content of a product, ISO 14001 helps recycling companies comply with environmental regulations, ISO 18604 provides a set of requirements for packaging to be classified as recoverable or recyclable (like what you see on some food packaging at the grocery store), and ISO 15270 provides what we need which is the guidelines for recovering and recycling plastic waste.  This last standard and ISO 22450 (requirements for information on end-of-life products) provide the certification framework and material traceability required for regulatory agencies to accept recycled materials for use in safety critical applications. 

This is only the tip of the iceberg if you will of where the recycled composite materials industry is going.  There have been a number of different “green” or “recycled” standards that have been developed and put in place rapidly in the recent past, with more in the works.  What this provides is a fairly confused landscape for the material recycler to know how their process and their resultant material fits within this framework.  The recycler has to make the highest return on their investment as they can so this can get confusing.  The pic below shows just how confusing this landscape really is. 


As you can see from this pic, the landscape for certification of recycled composites is getting more complex by the day.  At some point in the future, most of these standards are going to be consolidated into three or four different standards for use of recycled composites in applications for regulated industries.  This is common with emerging technologies and until the recycled composites industry finally matures into being a part of the greater materials industry with its fairly well set of material certification standards, this complex landscape will persist.  There is a website from Europe that covers the complexity of this landscape rather well.  This is understandable because the EU is somewhat ahead of the US in the use of recycled materials with their “Green” initiatives and laws that require it.  That website is here if you want to take a look - https://www.polycerteurope.eu/certification-schemes

And just so that everyone knows and understands this, the US Department of Defense in general requires material certifications for all of their weapon systems and vehicles, especially if they are organics like plastics and composites.  This is actually a very good thing because it ensures that our troops won’t get hurt by something they are trying to use in the heat of battle and expecting it to work as designed.  This may actually be the agency that forces the consolidation of all of these standards since it is the US Department of Defense that buys more certified products than any other agency.  And they have very strict rules about the traceability of materials that are used to make their weapon systems, vehicles, aircraft, and all of the other various and sundry things the military buys – even including the food that troops eat and the utensils they use to eat them with.

That’s about it for this week.  I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them.  As usual I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as well as on LinkedIn.  And if anyone wants to provide comments to this, I welcome them with open arms.  Comments, criticisms, etc. are all quite welcome.  I really do want to engage in a conversation with all of you about composites because we can learn so much from each other as long as we share our own perspectives. 

My second book is now in the hands of my publisher, with just one thing left for me to do – actually for my major prof to do – write me a foreword.  Most of you know that it is about what I have been writing in these newsletters for the last 6 months or so – sustainability of composites and a path to the future that does not include using fossil fuels for either the raw materials or the process energy to make composites.  The title of the book, at least for now, is “Close the Circle, A Roadmap to Composite Materials Sustainability.”  It truly is a roadmap which I hope that at least at some level the industry will follow.  Only time will tell. 

Finally, I still need to plug my first book, so here’s the plug.  The book pretty much covers the watershed in composites, starting with a brief history of composites, then introducing the Periodic Table and why Carbon is such an important and interesting element.  The book was published and made available last August and is available both on Amazon and from McFarland Books – my publisher.  However, the best place to get one is to go to my website and buy one.  I will send you a signed copy for the same price you would get charged on Amazon for an unsigned one, except that I have to charge for shipping.  Anyway, here’s the link to get your signed copy:  https://www.nedpatton.com/product-page/the-string-and-glue-of-our-world-signed-copy.  And as usual, here’s a picture of the book. 



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