SPE names award winners

A worker uses Nicos Polymers’ proprietary process to recover continuous-fiber reinforcement from flexible composites. (Society of Plastics Engineers photo)

NEWTOWN, CONN. (Feb. 8, 3:40 p.m. ET) -- Products with recycled content, made from renewable resources, or that biodegrade will be the focus of attention at the Plastics Environmental Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers’ annual conference.

The 2010 Environmental Stewardship Awards will be presented at the Global Plastics Environmental Conference (GPEC), March 8-10 in Orlando, Fla.

Nicos Polymers Group, a Nazareth, Pa.-based recycler, will receive the Chairman’s Award for its proprietary process that removes continuous fiber reinforcement from flexible composites.

According to Nicos, the process was developed to reclaim PVC from garden hose, but it also yields excellent results with industrial hoses, single-ply roofing membrane and architectural wall coverings.

Little Rock, Ark.-based tubing extruder Delta Plastics of the South LLC will receive the Daniel Eberhardt Environmental Stewardship Award.

According to Newtown-based SPE, Delta has achieved its goal of reclaiming and recycling virtually 100 percent of its used manufactured linear low density polyethylene irrigation tubing, and now the company is recycling a large portion of its competitors’ tubing, and an additional 1.43 million pounds per month of miscellaneous LDPE products.

The Daniel Eberhardt award is presented to the nominee who is totally committed to the spirit of environmental sustainability in all their actions.

Other award winners include:

*Arkema Inc. of Philadelphia, for Pebax RNew, a range of engineering thermoplastic elastomer resins made from renewable resources.

*BIOtech Products LLC of Randolph, N.J., for its BIOchem organometallic additives, which it says render conventional plastics landfill biodegradable in accordance with ASTM D 5526 for anaerobic biodegradation in landfills, while retaining or improving normal service life and processing as typically expected of organotitanates.

*Eco Research Institute Ltd. of Tokyo, for developing technology to pulverize paper into powder and compounding the paper with plastics to create an eco-friendly plastic.

*VAST Enterprises LLC of Minneapolis, for designing composite pavers produced from a proprietary blend of up to 95 percent recycled car tires and plastic containers.

*Amway, a direct selling company based in Ada, Mich., for its eSpring System, a water purifier that incorporates a sustainable design based on life-cycle assessment.

*Associated Packaging Technologies, a thermoformer based in Chadds Ford, Pa., won for its range of thermoformed crystalline PET trays is designed with smaller environmental impacts than traditional CPET products.

*Mannington Mills Inc. of Salem, N.J., for its expanded program for recycling post-consumer carpet into carpet, which now also includes recycling vinyl composition tile.

*Mack Molding Co., an Arlington, Vt.-based injection molder, and BigBelly Solar of Needham, Mass., for developing the BigBelly Solar Compactor, a solar-powered compacting trash receptacle for large scale, low-cost municipal waste collection.

Mack injection molds the solar bubble, fabricates the back panel and door, procures over 150 unique parts, and assembles the compactor and optional recycler for direct shipment to BigBelly Solar’s customers.

For more information on the awards or the GPEC conference, go to www.sperecycling.org, or www.4spe.org.

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