Recycling and sustainability under the microscope at KRAIBURG TPE

The topic of recycling is omnipresent, and as a company we receive inquiries on a daily basis, particularly in the field of plastics. No wonder, since hardly any other topic is currently under closer scrutiny in our segment. In particular, binding and comprehensible justifications are often in short supply, which is why we have decided to proceed with particular transparency in this area as well. Questions we are asked on a daily basis include:

• What does KRAIBURG TPE have to say about sustainability?
• Which products are offered?
• How do new solutions with recycled content compare with existing compounds?
• and many more.

Because KRAIBURG TPE makes decisions on a sound and transparent basis, we can remain competitive and informative to our customers - also in the area of sustainability. In a previous blog post, my colleague, Dr. Thomas Wagner, already distinguished between the areas of in-process, post-industrial and post-consumer recycled material. In the following, we will continue this series and provide information on how we, as a manufacturer of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), define sustainability and recycling.  

Recycling

In the sense of the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act (§3 paragraph 35), recycling is understood to be any recovery process by which waste is reprocessed into products, materials or substances, either for the original purpose or for others; it includes the reprocessing of organic materials, but not energy recovery and reprocessing into products intended for use as fuel or for backfilling.

Sustainability

The term sustainability is used as an umbrella term for efforts to increase the sustainability of products, product groups, and entire companies or corporations. It should be noted that this can be related to various properties of products, for example. These include, for example, raw materials from renewable sources, reduced GHG emissions, water conservation, etc. In a holistic approach, all Group and company divisions are considered equally with regard to sustainable trade. This means that in addition to environmental aspects, human rights and occupational health and safety standards are also considered equally at KRAIBURG TPE.

In one of the following articles, we will differentiate recycling and bio-based TPE.