EREMA North America's (ENA) recent Discovery Day generated a great deal of interest. The Technical Center in Ipswich, Massachusetts, became the meeting point for well-known companies spanning all sectors of the plastics industry. The focus of the discussions and demonstrations was on post-consumer recycling.

"Our goal is to take advantage of the growing awareness of the necessity of plastics recycling and drive forward networking within the industry. We managed to achieve this at our Discovery Day on 25 September," says a delighted Martin Baumann, VP Sales of ENA, referring not only to the speakers who were pleased to take part but also the impressive flow of visitors. 130 guests from all areas of the plastics scene accepted EREMA's invitation.
The focal theme was the recycling of post-consumer waste, with the circular economy being a possibly path if raw material producers, processors, brand article manufacturers and recyclers pursue it together. This was also underscored by the external speakers from Envision Plastics, Exxon Mobil and Interseroh Dienstleistungs AG, who presented outstanding projects in their talks. Efforts to improve recyclate quality were at the centre of analysis and discussion.

Recycling technology in real time
Attendees were able to experience three recycling systems for different applications in action in the course of the machine demonstrations and see close-up the convincing quality of the recyclates produced. The HDPE bottle recycling System (INTAREMA® RegrindPro with ReFresher and EREMA Laserfilter) presented stands out through the thermal-physical odour minimisation of the pellets. Additional technological highlights on show included recycling machines for EPS material (INTAREMA® TVEplus with SW RTF) and for heavily contaminated LLDPE films (INTAREMA® TVEplus with EREMA Laserfilter).

New service offered with KEYCYCLE
EREMA presented not only current trends and technical highlights to the Discover Day visitors but also the extensive range of services offered by its new business unit "KEYCYCLE". The company has brought together its engineering and services here to capitalise on the know-how available and meet the growing demand for comprehensive concepts for plastics recycling – with support, even in the early planning stage.

The speakers also came away from the Discovery Day with very positive impressions. "EREMA organised a great Recycling Discovery Day at their tech center," says Tamsin Ettefagh, Vice President Envision Plastics, who also presented at the event. "A mix of hands-on demonstrations at the machines and presentations makes this a unique happening in our industry. The focus on post-consumer recycling and demonstrated solutions to turn such materials into valuable products again couldn't have been more timely."