An Exclusive Interview at K 2025 : Dr. Friedrich Kastner, CEO Of Britas-Recycling Anlagen Gmbh, on the Future of Plastics and Recycling
Dr. Kastner, what role does plastic currently play as a material?
Plastic has become an indispensable material; it has proven itself in all areas of life. Take the field of medical technology for example: nobody wants to receive an injection from a doctor with a multiple syringe made of glass because there is a risk that it has been poorly sterilized. Everyone is happy to receive an injection with a disposable plastic syringe. Today, plastic plays a prominent role in most industries, especially those that are indispensable for the energy transition, for example in the wind power and photovoltaic sectors. Many people think of plastic only in terms of plastic bags or straws, which is far too short-sighted. Plastic has permeated our society. So why is that the case? It’s because its properties such as durability, lightness and serializability are unsurpassed. Alongside aluminium and steel, plastic is one of the materials that has made progress in our civilization possible in the first place.
Does that mean there will be more rather than less plastic in the future?
Yes, I think so. Of course, it is important to use plastic responsibly, which starts with the development of a product. Even at this point, it is necessary to think about the end-of-life cycle. The subsequent recycling process must be considered right from the start. The trend here is towards more pure varieties and fewer mixed materials – there are already many good approaches to this topic in Europe. If you take all these points into account, I am convinced that plastic will be used more and more widely, as there are simply no alternatives. Although there are a number of areas such as the packaging sector where the use of plastics is declining, on the whole the use of plastic will increase.
What are the latest developments in recycling?
At K 2016, we could already see garden benches and flower boxes produced from collected waste plastic. The aim was to show that in principle it is working – however, it does notmake sense to turn the high-quality material in an original product into a low-quality recycled product. Since then, mechanical recycling has undergone further technological development, which now makes it possible to produce a material of equal value after the raw materials have been recovered. Chemical recycling has also become increasingly important in recent years. All this always goes hand in hand with the competitiveness of these materials. The key questions are: what are the costs to process, clean and filter plastic, and what energy and raw materials are required. These costs are then weighed up against the price of virgin material. If virgin material is cheaper, the market will buy it as long as the legal framework does not prevent it.
What would the framework conditions have to look like?
We have to ensure that we do not lose our competitive edge. In Europe, we have high production costs and a great deal of overregulation; that is why we see production moving to Asia and probably increasingly to the USA in the future. This is where we have to take countermeasures. The legislator must also create incentives to encourage consumers to collect plastic waste on a larger scale and to recycle more. Recycling requires energy, and energy costs should be controlled in such a way that reprocessing also makes economic sense. With energy costs as high as they are at present, returning materials to the cycle is difficult.
What new technologies are available in plastics processing?
I think that many technologies are either already established or are waiting in the wings. Currently, more attention is paid to the need for less material and at the same time to achieve a higher integration of properties. Regarding packaging, for example, the aim is to make it thinner and more durable, and to provide it with more functions. In the field of machine technology on the other hand, everything is geared towards reducing weight in order to save energy costs, thereby increasing efficiency. At BritAS, we have noticed that recycled quantities are rising. This means that the recycling plants are also continually expanding. Another trend is forward integration in recycling plants – instead of granulating material after melting and then subsequently melting the granulate again to turn it into a recycled product, the trend is increasingly to omit the granulation stage. The molten material is used directly to manufacture a product, such as preforms for PET bottles. This saves enormous amounts of energy, and also results in higher quality, since the intermediate processing steps are eliminated.
BritAS is part of the NGA Group. All companies of the group deal with plastic. How are the companies related?
In the NGA Group, we cover the entire life cycle of the plastics industry. We start with simulations and tests at NGA, at COLLIN we develop and manufacture extrusion lines for the production of plastic products and plants for the quality control of plastics. COMELT manufactures tools for injection moulding and extrusion nozzles for production processes, and finally at BritAS, we handle the recycling process.
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