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About Husky Injection and Molding Systems

Husky Injection and Molding Systems Ltd. Is located in Bolton, Ontario. Beginning in the 1950s, Husky has long believed in environmental justice in the world of plastics. They knew that by being a company that creates plastics, that the main goal of theirs will be to make sure the plastics that they produce are sustainable. Husky helps customers and companies make sustainable packaging. To do so, this is all based on the materials being used, and currently, they are open to researching other materials to create other products. They rely on advanced recycling, looking at biodegradable source materials, compostable materials, and ways to possibly convert plastic materials. Overall, the goal is to use sustainable materials.

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It is important to make plastic circular, meaning to keep reusing material. That’s the initiative, to keep recycling and reuse instead of making new plastics. In order to do that, the materials that are meant to be recycled must have extensive research put into understanding its production and transformations, as well as to identify barriers.

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PET Plastics

Specific limitations on the allowed amount of biodegradable materials in the European recycling stream for PET, in general, there are limitations to the amount of contamination allowed in the post-consumer recycled PET bales, and biodegradable plastics are just one of the many contaminants. 

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastics have been used by Husky for over a decade. The company used the top of the line PET injection molding machine to create these plastics. PET essentially are one of the safest and best plastics to use as they breakdown easier than any other grade. The goal for PET is to reduce the worlds carbon footprint by recycling more. In order for a package to be recycled it has to be designed to be recyclable, and PET does just that. Husky works close with multiple partners to better understand recycling, and being a member of The Association of Plastic Recyclers provides them with better education on the topic. 

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Biodegradable Plastics

Recyclers do not like biodegradable plastics because it contaminates the PET bale quality when they are mistakenly thrown in the recycling system. The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR – represents north America but largely based in the US) references both biopolymers and degradable additives as negatively impacting the quality of recycled materials. Their position statements are here. Recycling and reusing the material provides a benefit over biodegradation because it means we can reuse the material instead of extracting new virgin material, reusing the material through mechanical recycling has a lower carbon footprint than using virgin material.

 

Biodegradable plastics are generally intended to be thrown in the green bin where it is industrial composted. Industrial composting is different from biodegrading in the natural environment. Industrial composting takes place in large facilities at temperatures of -60°C for many weeks to first disintegrate and then biodegrade.

 

It goes without saying that having the material biodegrade in industrial composting facilities is great because it eliminates that waste from reaching landfills or the natural environment. 

 

However, products/materials that pass criteria allowing them to be industrial composted will still take a long time to biodegrade in the natural environment since the conditions are not optimal for that material to break down. 

 

The problem is many people won’t know to throw these items in the green bin and so they mistakenly end up contaminating the recycling stream or in landfills where they sit in an environment where the biodegradation cannot occur or is significantly slowed down. There are different degrees of biodegradable plastics that biodegrade in different conditions at different rates, many of the materials that have been brought to market today such as PLA require industrial composting.

 

There are product applications where it may make sense to use a biodegradable material because of recycling or other difficulties, but it should be evaluated for that application, regional waste management system, and with a life cycle approach to ensure it is the most sustainable material choice.

 

Husky is continually researching what alternative materials are available including bio-based and biodegradable plastics to ensure they can bring products and solutions forward to run the most sustainable materials.

Their Mission

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