It is impossible to imagine the construction industry without geosynthetics. PP nonwovens, for example - mechanically bonded continuous fibres made from specially UV-stabilised polypropylenes - are often used in blanket form as barriers, screens and filters, and their strength extends the service life of construction projects. Whether for road construction, or as barrier on glaciers or against weeds - there are myriad applications.
This type of PP nonwoven can now be recycled using PURE LOOP ISEC evo technology. The customer is TenCate Geosynthetics, part of the Canadian company Solmax. The European company with locations in Austria, France and the Netherlands is specialised in the development and production of geotextiles for modern civil engineering applications.
The edge trimmings and production rejects generated during manufacturing used to be recycled at the Linz site, but not fed back into the company's own production process. "It wasn't an issue at the time because the recyclate was sold. But in the meantime, it has become clear that reselling our valuable production waste is not an ideal solution, especially in view of the rising raw material prices. That is why we investigated the market to see which recycling technology would make it possible to produce recylate that meets our production quality," says Jürgen Gruber, Head of Marketing (Europe/Middle-East/Africa) at TenCate Geosynthetics.
"The demands on us were high," recalls Patrick Wiesinger, project manager at PURE LOOP. "The PP nonwoven is highly tear resistant, which means its a very challenging recycling process. Our ISEC evo machine conserves the quality of the production waste really well during recycling, so we were able to achieve the specified increase in quality for the recyclates."
