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Recycling Passes Screen Test at Philips
 When Philips made its television sets bigger it faced a mountain of problems.
A move to larger screens at its Simonstone, Burnley plant meant that thousands of pallets of EPS packaging were no longer required.
Supplier Protection Packaging Limited (PPL) moved fast to make sure the drama didn't turn into a crisis, lending Philips Components a compactor and arranging for a recycling firm to give the old EPS a starring role at the world’s most popular restaurant!
"At Simonstone we make around 3 million screens a year, stored either unpolished or as finished and inspected parts ready for dispatch", Philips Logistics Leader Alan Smith commented. "In both cases we use polystyrene packaging to store them. Screen sizes vary with marketing and customer needs."
 Change-over to a new product line left 3,500 pallets of waste EPS.The compacted EPS is being turned into pellets for use in making moulded plastic forms (including seats and benches for McDonald's restaurants) and coving for home ceilings. Waste Exchange Services (WES), the Stockton-on-Tees recycler, is looking to increase the recycling of waste expanded polystyrene over the next year.
Its single shaft shredder, which can shred EPS at more than 500 kg an hour, is being replaced by an Erema reprocessing line. "Dry clean material produces an almost clear crystal pellet but dirt or labels can spoil this," explained WES Recycling Manager Kieron Knight. "Training is important whenever such material is being prepared to ensure that it is suitable for a recycler.
Large amounts of contaminants make the material unsuitable for anything but the lowest grade uses." WES says its product has a very low change in its Melt Flow Index, making it suitable for re-use. Material can be produced in specified colours, and odours minimised. Disposing of waste EPS that has come from as far away as Asia was a problem that confronted another EPS customer, LG Electronics North East (LGENE) at Washington in County Durham.
LGENE generates substantial amounts of waste EPS because many components arrive from Asia on EPS trays. As part of its service, PPL takes this waste — some 40 tonnes a year — back to its factory at Harelaw on delivery vehicles' return trips, compacts it and it is collected by a recycler.
"It's a useful contribution to the environment because otherwise all that waste would go into landfill dumps," LGENE Sourcing Officer Les Gibson said. "We're ISO 14001 approved so constantly need to look at ways of minimising ecological impact. Previously we compacted the waste EPS ourselves and put it into landfills."
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