Cumberland: Recycling cuts CO2 potential

New Berlin, Wis. — Cumberland Granulators is working with customers to track their carbon footprint and nail down numbers showing how in-house scrap recycling aids their sustainability programs.

Cumberland, part of New Berlin-based ACS Group, recently worked with Teel Plastics, a Baraboo, Wis., injection molder and extruder, and recycler KW Plastics of Troy, Ala., to identify specific benefits.

"Sustainability is much more than a buzzword," said Andre Adams, senior product manager at Cumberland, in a news release. "Companies in the plastics industry realize that their future success depends largely on being environmentally responsible and contributing to a circular economy."

The project tracked the reduction of global warming potential in their operations.

Cumberland granulators are used at a range of plastics firms to reduce the size of scrap and make it possible to reuse that material.

"We asked ourselves, 'How can we quantify the direct effect on how grinding and recycling scrap plastics helps the environment as opposed to using additional virgin resin or filling a local landfill with scrap?'" Adams said.

The project tied net greenhouse gas emission reductions available by recclaiming material.

Teel recently converted its operations to use Cumberland FX Series beside-the-press granulators rather than sending material to a central granulating room, Christian Herrild, director of growth strategies at Teel, said in the release.

Having the granulators at the press meant more material went back into use, saved on labor and added up to $300,000 in material savings per year, Herrild said. With that background, Teel was quick to sign up to Cumberland's study.

KW Plastics has used Cumberland granulators for more than 30 years, said Scott Saunders, general manager.

The study showed that Teel mitigated potential CO2 emissions by up to 11,000 tons per year by using regrind in its processes, the equivalent of eliminating emissions from 2,195 cars annually, Cumberland reported.

KW Plastics, meanwhile, mitigated potential CO2 by 75,000 tons per year, or the equivalent of 15,000 vehicles.

The studies are available at:

https://www.cumberlandplastics.com/teelsustainability/

https://www.cumberlandplastics.com/kwsustainability/