PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 35 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 06/16 www.petpla.net RECYCLING S P E C I A L GM recycles water bottles into engine components, air filters and sleeping bags Drink up and help the community General Motors is giving its employees’ recycled water bot- tles a new life: noise-reducing fabric insulation that covers the Chevrolet Equinox engine. The bottles – collected from five of its Michigan facilities – are also being turned into air filtration components and insulation in coats for the home- less community. Recycling collaboration network Each partner engaged in this initiative brings specific capabilities. Hamtramck Recycling bales the plastic bottles collected from GM’s world head- quarters at the Renaissance Center, Warren Technical Center and Orion Assembly, Flint Tool and Die and Flint Engine plants. Clean Tech Inc. washes the bottles and converts them to flake. Unifi, Inc. recycles the bottle flake into resin. Palmetto Synthetics processes the resin to create fibres and William T. Burnett & Co. processes the fibres into various forms of fleece, serving all three applications. Rogers Foam Corp. die cuts the fleece and Exo-s attaches it into the nylon cover for the Chevrolet Equi- nox V6 engine. Filtration Services Group works with New Life Center, a nonprofit jobs development and training mission in Flint, to make the panels for the air filtration fleece, which is then sent to 10 GM facilities. The coat insulation is sent to Carhartt, a workwear com- pany established in Detroit in 1889, who cuts it to size for The Empower- ment Plan. GM also is working with vari- ous organisations such as Schupan The empty water bottles collected at five locations of the facilities of General Motors are funnelled into the “Do Your Part” project, where 11 busi- nesses collaborate to give the PET bottles a second life. After process- ing, the recycled PET is used for the manufacture of the Chevrolet Equinox V6 engine cover, a part which helps dampen engine noise to deliver a quiet ride. In addition, the recycled bottles are used for air filtration com- ponents which are used in GM facili- ties to protect air quality and insula- tion material that goes into coats that transform into sleeping bags. “Recycling is good, but viewing waste as a valuable resource that can be plugged into your operations or products is even better,” said John Bradburn, GM global manager of waste reduction. “It’s about rethinking the process and finding more sustain- able ways to manufacture products and contribute to our communities.” GM pursued this project after analys- ing that sourcing recycled material costs the same as new material while saving energy and reducing waste. Also, the project helps to support local companies which are part of the recy- cle network. These bottles, emptied by GM employ- ees, take on a new life as noise-reduc- ing fabric insulations, air filtration components or coats insulation fabric for the homeless community. GM Global Manager of Waste Reduction John Bradburn demonstrates the Chev- rolet Equinox engine insulation made from used water bottles from several GM facilities. Recycling in Flint to collect additional water bottles to plug into the project. Meanwhile, GM has 131 landfill- free facilities around the world and recycles the equivalent of 38 million garbage bags of byproducts each year. www.gm.com www.stf-group.de ENGINEERING WITH THE COMPETENCE OF THE RECYCLER • Complete Plastic Sorting and Washing Lines engineered by Europe’s largest PET Recycler • Bottle-to-Bottle rPET Recycling • More than 60 PET Recycling Lines installed worldwide