Image source: Parley for the****Oceans
Recycling company from Aicha vorm Wald cooperates with global environmental organization “Parley for the Oceans”
More than eight million tonnes of plastic products enter the world’s oceans every year. Plastic bags, PET bottles, drinking straws and many other plastic packaging items drift through the oceans and are washed ashore in huge waves. Dream beaches in the Caribbean? Boundless biodiversity? Not in sight.
Humanity has recognized that this cannot continue and has declared war on plastic pollution. STF Group, headquartered in Aicha vorm Wald, is working on the front line. For 40 years, the international company has been one of the market leaders in the plastics recycling industry and continuously optimizes its solutions for the recycling of plastic streams. The plastics recycling company recently entered into a cooperation with the global environmental organization “Parley for the Oceans”.
“We signed the cooperation agreement on February 25 of this year in New York,” says Dirk F. Leiber, Sales Director of STF Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH, with evident pride. Over the coming years, STF Group, together with “Parley for the Oceans”, will develop, plan and build sorting and recycling systems optimized for operation in developing countries. One special example of these concepts is the Mini Recycling Plants, and these compact systems are highly capable: a fully pre-installed recycling line, based on the “plug and play” principle, is housed in the space of three 40-foot shipping containers. This means that once the system leaves the plant in Aicha, it only needs to be switched on at the destination and the system starts running. Recycling can hardly be made any simpler.
The first of these systems will be operated in the Maldives, where it will help remove discarded plastics step by step. “Our system cleans, washes and recycles up to 1,000 kilograms of plastic in a single hour and will therefore make a significant contribution to improving environmental conditions and quality of life locally,” Dirk Leiber continues. These processes produce plastic flakes from PET bottles, PP and HDPE. The PET flakes are then further processed into Parley Ocean Plastic fibers and yarns for the clothing industry or into films for the credit card industry. The system is expected to be commissioned in 2021.
In addition, the cooperation between “Parley for the Oceans” and STF Group in Aicha also includes direct problem-solving through recycling. “At our plant in Pilsen, 30 tonnes of Parley Ocean Plastic from the Dominican Republic have already been recycled. This material was recently processed into granulate in Aicha and is now being used to manufacture credit cards,” reports the Sales Director.
And since good things come in threes, there is a third area of cooperation between STF Group and “Parley for the Oceans”. STF Group is planning and supplying a sorting system to Tilafushi. Thilafushi is an island in the Maldives, but not one with white dream beaches, bright sunshine and green palm trees. No, Thilafushi is an island made of waste, created by human activity. For 30 years, waste and scrap were deposited on Thilafushi, causing the island to grow in height and width every day — with severe consequences for people and animals. “This problem is now to be solved with the help of our technology,” says Dirk F. Leiber. “Our system sorts recyclable waste according to its material classes and types so that it can then be further recycled.”
STF Group is therefore making an important contribution to climate protection and sustainability. “I am proud that, with our systems operating worldwide, we can make a positive contribution to environmental protection and the protection of the oceans,” says Maximilian Söllner, CEO of STF Recycling Division. “Plastic is not simply a disposable product. It can be recycled repeatedly and returned to an endless cycle. A great deal will continue to develop in this direction in the future. We are on the right track, and STF Group is in pole position. In the fight against the flood of plastic, we deliver the individually required solutions.”
So that the oceans can once again become what they have always been: a special habitat and a true reservoir of biodiversity. Images: Parley for the Oceans