08 January 2025
Transport of granulates and regranulates in silos
Plastic waste, if not recycled, harms the environment. Microparticles of plastic can also be unintentionally released during production, processing or transport. Environmental pressure is leading to comprehensive solutions to minimise pollution and raise the environmental awareness of societies. Further legislation is expected to help with this - in April 2024, the European Parliament decided on the adoption of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, the so-called PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation). Among other things, the regulation sets targets for reducing plastic waste. The PPWR also imposes new obligations on transport companies associated with plastics companies. As part of their operations, they will be required to implement a programme to minimise granular waste (the so-called Operation Clean Sweep programme, OCS). Ruta Transport is already a member of the programme and respects it.
Ruta Transport is seeing a steady increase in plastics transport orders. The company adapts its offer to changing market requirements and customer expectations in order to optimally use its transport potential. Therefore, its portfolio also includes an offer for the transport of granulates and regranulates. On a permanent basis, Ruta Transport cooperates with several companies in this field, but it also handles ‘spot’ orders for interested parties.
Granulates and regranulates can be transported in various ways - in big-bags, containers and professional silo trailers. Transport in silo trailers is the safest and - when all the costs of the individual components of the supply chain are taken into account - the most economical method of transporting bulk materials. Loading and unloading are carried out automatically, without the involvement of the manufacturer's and customer's employees. Automated production means that the material is transferred directly from the stationary silo, which significantly reduces the duration of the entire process. Transport in silos ensures stable quality of the transported material (protection against moisture) and eliminates the costly problem of disposing of packaging: bags, pallets and film. The high-capacity silos take up up to 30% less space than a conventional horizontal big-bag warehouse, and stock levels can be controlled electronically. This can reduce storage costs.
As granulates and regranulates are very light, they are loaded into larger capacity silo trailers. Silo trailers with a capacity of min. 60 m3. Thanks to the cylindrical design of the container, they are easy to keep clean, i.e. to remove residues of recently transported material. In the case of transport in silos, washing in washing facilities confirming the cleanliness of the vehicle with an ECD (European Cleaning Document) certificate is often required.
Regranulate production process and properties
Regranulate is produced by recycling plastics for reuse. It is most often in the form of granules or small balls, can come in many different colours and has a wide range of applications. It can be used in the same way as granulate, but is usually used for products where product aesthetics play a lesser role. Regranulate is used in the cosmetics industry (containers), construction (moulded parts, prefabricated parts, pipes), in the production of machine and equipment components for industry, electronics (casing for consumer electronics), various packaging (containers, crates, rubbish bags, shopping bags, canisters, barrels).
The properties of regranulate depend on the type of recycled plastic. The appropriate quality of regranulate can be ensured by appropriate selection, washing and grinding of the recycled plastic products.
Depending on the type of base material from which regranulate is produced, several types can be distinguished. LDPE regranulate is produced from recycled low-density polyethylene and has almost unlimited applications - for water containers, cosmetics, machine parts or shopping nets. Polyethylene is also used to produce high-density HDPE regranulate, which is highly resistant to low temperatures, salts, acids and alkalis and has a wide range of industrial applications. PP regranulate is produced from polypropylene and is most commonly used for film and packaging. Polystyrene products (usually shredded polystyrene boards) are used to produce polystyrene regranulate, which is used as an insulating material.