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Time of India

Bengaluru firm unveils tech to recycle plastic that can't be melted

Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel In a breakthrough for plastic recycling and sustainable manufacturing, Bengaluru-based Steer World has unveiled the Omega Twin-Screw Extrusion Technology , which could help manufacturers recycle plastics that cannot be melted. Steer World, headquartered in the Peenya Industrial Area of Bengaluru, specialises in materials transformation to PTI, Prakash Hadimani, Global Head of the Application Development Centre at Steer World, said crosslinked polyethene (XLPE)-such as the outer layer of cables that covers copper wire-has long been considered non-recyclable."Traditionally, major players sold these wires in bulk as scrap. Buyers of the scrap would extract the copper and dispose of the shredded plastic, which ends up in landfills," said explained that although it is technically possible to break down polymers in such plastic waste-also called thermoset waste-using chemicals, the process is intensive, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly. Even bulk producers preferred discarding the waste rather than recycling it."The process involved chemicals and extensive use of water to neutralise them, making it neither viable nor eco-friendly," Hadimani Steer World's new technology, he said, it is now possible to break the carbon linkages, softening the polymer into a meltable form."The Omega Twin-Screw Extrusion uses our patented Fractional Geometry Technology (FGT) to recycle thermoset waste into pellet form," he technology uses a combination of mechanical shear and controlled heat to break the crosslinks in XLPE while preserving its base structure, enabling it to be turned into a reusable form called De-XLPE (Decrosslinked XLPE), Hadimani can then be used to produce insulation for wires, thus enabling circularity in polymer manufacturing, he added."With this process, we're not just recycling-we're redefining what's recyclable," said Hadimani."The ability to reclaim and reintegrate thermoset materials like XLPE is a breakthrough the industry has been waiting for," he said.