As I See It
May 1st, 2008                                Print this article

One thing leads to another

By Matt Defosse

Michel Py is director of Cifra, a sheet extrusion processor serving the thermoforming industry from its facility in Chateu-Thierry, France. He spoke with MPW last month while attending the SPE thermoforming conference in Berlin, Germany. He can be reached at mpy@cifra.fr.

Michel Py recounts how sheet extrusion processor Cifra followed the market toward expertise in processing post-consumer PVC scrap.

When foreign competition started to put a dent in his company’s sheet extrusion business, he developed new business using post-industrial scrap. Success there drove up his demand for post-industrial scrap, and prices climbed. That’s MPW when Py turned to sourcing post-consumer PVC scrap, and things got interesting.

MPW: What made you get involved in recycling of post-consumer rigid PVC?

Michel Py: Our customer was doing good business thermoforming sheet extruded from recycled industrial scrap to form his product for rainwater retention. We were fighting [for his product] versus steel and concrete…when you compete with concrete, you need to be a low-cost product, that’s for sure. So the only possible plastic solution was to use recycled materials. But even standard recyclate prices became too high to successfully compete, so we needed a new source of material.

MPW: Where did you find it?

Py: The first project, if you can believe it, was recycling the cooling towers from power plants. These towers are lined with PVC sheet; the river water trickles down the sheet and cools off about 10ºC before it flows back into the river. The water isn’t contaminated, but it does contain plenty of mud, chalk, other impurities. After 10 years or so, these coat the PVC walls so much that they can no longer remove enough heat, and need to be replaced. So then we take the PVC, remove the mud, chalk and whatnot, and then clean the PVC again to ensure we have at least 85% pure PVC.

The problem was, we wanted to expand this business but needed even more PVC scrap. I looked around, and then Recovinyl approached me and said they could help. So now I’m a big player in Recovinyl. Also, Vinyl 2010 helped me. They [Vinyl 2010] provided some funding for research. (Ed. note: Recovinyl is an initiative of Vinyl 2010, the European PVC industry’s commitment to sustainability.)

But I didn’t stop. We saw there were still some PVC bottles in the market, with those being landfilled or shipped (post-use) to China. I took those. Word got around, and soon we were being approached by more people who needed to get rid of their rigid PVC scrap.

Now, demand for the water retention system is growing rather quickly, so I am always on the lookout for new supply.

MPW: What is so difficult about PVC recycling?

Py: It’s not easy. It took us three to four years to learn how to calendar the post-consumer PVC. Normally, we accept [scrap with] up to 20% of other stuff mixed in, like concrete, wood, steel, other plastics, whatever. The only really bad mix is when PET is mixed with the PVC; everything else we can separate.

We’re still a small company. In Europe, I think I’m the only one processing post-consumer rigid PVC into new products. Big companies have trouble being as versatile as we are. With every truckload of scrap being different, I think that [versatility] is our advantage. Plus, if there is a part of the plastics industry that is going to get help from politicians and new legislation, it’s ours.

What often is forgotten: Innovation isn’t only for very high-tech products. We forget this too often—there can also be big innovation for quite simple things.

MPW: What are your next steps?

Py: Our big business now is in the UK. A few years ago there was a big flood in Oxford, and the only part of the city that stayed above water was the area protected by our product. It was great PR for us.

The water retention market is huge, but we’re already thinking of new products. One could be a closed loop, to recycle and then form cooling towers [for nuclear plants].

We’re looking at others, too. For instance, scrap mixed with aluminum can conduct a little bit of electricity, so a sheet can be extruded, which, on a roof, can be used to melt snow. This business is starting to grow, though not as quickly as the water retention business.

MPW: How large is your business now?

Py: We have 70 employees at Cifra, and we’ll add another 18 or so in the next two years. Some of the recycling can be done by machine, and I’ve four different recycling systems installed. But the problem is, every truckload that arrives is different, so you need people who are flexible and know how to deal with the different types of waste.

But I’m a converter, not a recycler; I don’t just want to recycle. I’m always thinking of the applications.

MPW: Where do you foresee Cifra’s future prospects?

Py: In the last four years we’ve gone from 4% of our production volume being R-PVC, to now 55%. My next goal is to recycle pharmaceutical blister packs—-made of PVC and aluminum. To now these are being burned. I’ve no problem with burning, but maybe there’s a better way to use the material. I’ve done some testing and think we’ll be able to separate the aluminum from the PVC.

We’ve started working on recycling of soft PVC, too. The problem is finding the applications.

What I am really looking for now is a financial partner to help me expand the technology to other countries. I mean, we save CO2 emissions, our product is used for water retention…It’s hard to get much more environmentally friendly than that.

MPW: You walk in two worlds—plastics processing and recycling. What have you learned from recycling that helps you in plastics processing?

Py: We need to have a new type of discussion with our customers. What do you bring to them with regards to sustainability? Answer that and you can change the whole spin on the discussion. The customers want a green label; we’ll help them get it. In 2007 we saved the planet about 6000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions; for 2008 we’ll save about 10,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Just for comparison, Air France has as its goal to save 6000 tonnes this year.

It’s not easy to change others’ mindsets, but that also means there is a lot of potential.

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