Closed-loop Process Creates “New” Plastic

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The Lavergne Group is mentioned often by its partner, HP, when it describes it’s “closed-loop” process. Lavergne plays an important role in ensuring that recycled plastics retain original or “virgin” quality levels.  Plastics are shipped to Montreal, Lavergne’s home, where the Lavergne Group blends the plastics from used cartridges and combines them with other additives and plastic resin from recycled water bottles to create “new” plastic for new plastics.

When HP was seeking a partner for this recycling process in 2000, it ended up selecting the Lavergne Group. This selection was made due to Lavergne’s significant experience in plastics with automotive, appliance, and electronics industries. Lavergne’s ability to bring recycled plastics back to “virgin” plastics standards was of primary interest to HP. Additionally, Lavergne had extensive experience with PET, the plastic that HP was interested in recycling, as well as familiarity with plastic purification — an important first step in the closed-loop process.

The closed-loop process is defined as follows:

• Cartridges are sorted.
• Cartridges are put through a multiphase process for recycling.
• The plastics are separated. (The specific plastic is polyethylene terephthalate or more commonly known as PET.)
• The PET plastic is combined with additives and recycled bottle resin to create recycled PET or RPET. This is the step performed by the Lavergne Group.
• The use of recycled plastics in original HP inkjet cartridges closes the loop.

By 2011, HP has pledged to use 100 million pounds of recycled plastic in HP printers and cartridges (cumulatively from 2007 to 2011). In addition to 1 billion ink cartridges manufactured with recycled plastics, HP manufactures several printers made from recycled content:

• HP Deskjet D2600 is made from 50% recycled materials and requires 30% less energy than its predecessor.
• HP Deskjet F4400 is made from 20% recycled materials and requires 55% less energy than its predecessor.
• HP Photosmart A640 compact photo printer is made from 32% recycled materials and ships in a reusable tote for reduced packaging waste.

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