Circular Economy: Recycled vs virgin plastic

Can components made from recycled plastic keep up with virgin material?
European researchers and partner companies, have demonstrated that recycled plastic performs similarly to virgin plastic and it is also a suitable material for many parts.

Recycling plastic plays a key role in climate and environmental protection. A high percentage of packaging is made from recycled plastic, but many companies are still unwilling to use it with higher-end products. If the recycled is processed efficiently, properties like appearance and strength can be adapted to match those of virgin plastic.

Researchers want to change the status quo and show that we can trust recycled materials. To that end, Bosch firstly optimised recycled from the housing of automotive starter batteries using additives to increase the strength and enhance the visual properties. Next, we had to identify whether the optimised material would be suitable for manufacturing parts like for example dishwasher case bottoms. If these pieces could be produced from recycled, this would be an important contribution to making household appliances more sustainable: For example, on a production figure of 3 million dishwashers per year, using the recycled would save around 2500 tons of crude oil annually.

What are the qualitative properties of the recycled material?
The recycled is less strong (around 15%) and has similar stiffness properties than virgin plastic but both materials behave exactly the same way in terms of plastic deformability, so it is fair to say that the recycled can handle the same stresses as virgin material.

How robust is a component made from recycled?
Several tests made with virgin and recycled plastic material confirm that the resilience values of specific pieces made from recycled differ only very slightly to those made from virgin material. Taking a dishwasher as an example, the conclusion is that a dishwasher case bottom made from recycled is indeed possible and swapping from virgin plastic to recycled would make a significant contribution to a sustainable complete appliance.

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