In January, the blue bin reform promises to increase the quantity of materials to be recycled. The challenge promises to be significant to succeed in recycling the enfant terrible of sorting centers: polystyrene.
Published at 8:00 a.m.
Until now, this famous plastic no 6, used to make meat trays, yogurt containers, coffee lids and packaging foams, is often diverted to landfill.
There are several solutions for recycling polystyrene. Remolding it into street furniture is one of them.
There is also a less toxic recipe to transform this polymer infinitely. The patent is indeed ours. But since regional county municipalities (RCMs) must tighten their belts, its deployment, which requires colossal investments, seems unlikely.
Plastic should be dissolved like sugar in coffee. But instead of coffee, it’s cymene essential oil, a type of solvent found naturally in some plants, including cumin. At the end of the process, plastic balls (a kind of resin) emerge that can be remolded endlessly.
Far from simple shredding
Monday morning in November, rue de l’Innovation, in the industrial sector of the Anjou district, in Montreal. We’re freezing in the Polystyvert laboratory factory. The person responsible? Air conditioning.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
The Polystyvert factory processes 1000 tonnes of plastic per year.
Virginie Bussières, vice-president of the emerging company, is preparing to fly to Europe. Strategic meetings await him on the other side of the Atlantic in the hope of accelerating the growth of Polystyvert. Currently, the factory processes 1000 tonnes of plastic per year. It is targeting 11,000 tonnes in a future factory valued at more than 30 million.
Mme Bussières explains that the company goes further than “simple shredding” of plastic. It can recycle all types of polystyrene: expanded, extruded or injected. The process eliminates almost all of the contaminants present in this plastic made from fossil energy.
“To clearly illustrate our innovation in dissolution recycling, I like to use the image of a large cake. It’s a bit as if we had succeeded in developing a process allowing each of the ingredients, eggs, milk or flour, to be removed from a cooked cake. It seems impossible, but it’s possible. »
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Virginie Bussières, vice-president of Polystyvert, in the company’s factory
This is what we do with Styrofoam. We manage to remove all the contaminants to obtain black, white or beige balls to remold.
Virginie Bussières, vice-president of Polystyvert
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
White, beige and black balls obtained from polystyrene
The closed-loop chemical process generates 80 to 90% less greenhouse gases than other ways of recycling plastic no 6, according to Polystyvert.
In the factory, there is an odor reminiscent of balsamic vinegar, with a sprig of eucalyptus. A huge funnel-shaped tank sits in the middle of the place. This is the first step: dissolution.
Reservoirs then allow “purification” by removing labels, fragments of wood, metal, color pigments. The next two steps involve soaking the plastic in another solvent so that the material is transformed into paste, into long filaments, and then into pellets.
A bit like water bottles recycled to make certain clothes, perhaps one day we will see the words “Made from recycled polystyrene”. What we are doing here is truly a plastic-to-plastic process.
Virginie Bussières, vice-president of Polystyvert
The ecocenter
To administer selective collection, the government has mandated Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ). The organization must manage the single list for the blue bin, which will come into force from January 2025, including polystyrene.
Head of public affairs, Marie-Claude Rivet confirms that three types of plastic containers and packaging “particularly” disrupt selective collection and must be sent elsewhere than in the recycling bin. The ecocenter is an option.
Next year, the first phase of a pilot project will be deployed with municipal recovery centers to determine how to store, recycle and implement a polystyrene traceability system.
Marie-Claude Rivet, head of public affairs at Éco Entreprises Québec
Styrofoam packaging for furniture and televisions is specifically targeted. EEQ hopes to be able to offer a collection service everywhere by 2027. Will the collection be carried out door to door? The organization does not mention it.
Around the world, campaigns are taking place to eliminate single-use plastic. To protect beaches, oceans. In this context, Polystyvert’s solution raises certain questions. Aren’t we just increasing the quantity of polystyrene produced?
Regional director, Plastics section, of the Canadian Chemical Industry Association, Jean-François Fortier does not hesitate to praise the merits of the establishment of a polystyrene recycling loop. According to him, Quebec must put in place more incentives to encourage large manufacturers to invest more in innovative plastics recycling technologies.
“At the Association, what we are advocating is not the end of the use of plastic; it is its intelligent and sustainable reuse, to optimize the circular economy, underlines Mr. Fortier. Plastic is everywhere around us. Demand is strong, especially among businesses. We recommend its recycling. »
Discover the modernization of selective collection in Quebec
Visit the Polystyvert website
Learn more
-
- 471 000
- Tons of plastic (all types combined) which were eliminated from municipal collections, industries, businesses and Institutions, in 2019-2020. Around 23,000 tonnes of plastico 6 were thrown into landfill during this same period, which represents 5% of all plastic disposed of in the province.
Source: Recyc-Québec, Disposal characterization study
