Shift by Alberta Innovates
Shift by Alberta Innovates
Beyond the bin: transforming post-consumer plastics with NAIT's Dr. Muhammad Arshad
The challenge of plastic waste demands innovative solutions, especially when we confront the startling reality that only nine percent of plastics worldwide are currently being recycled.
NAIT's Dr. Muhammad Arshad reveals how the Polytechnic's initiative Plastic Research in Action is tackling this problem, specifically through groundbreaking work on polymer blends in the Designing for Circularity: Development of polypropylene blends using post-consumer recycled plastic program.
For the past two years, Dr. Arshad's team has been working with their industry partners Heartland Polymers to develop and test formulations that combine virgin polypropylene with post-consumer recycled plastics. Their research delves into the complex realities of plastic recycling—how materials degrade through multiple processing cycles, why multi-layer packaging frustrates recycling efforts, and what formulations might maintain performance quality while incorporating recycled content. Now moving from bench testing to pilot scale, their partnership with Heartland Polymers shows promise for creating commercially viable solutions.
The conversation illuminates the entire lifecycle of plastic products, from petroleum-based production through consumer use to disposal and potential reuse. We discover why 100% recycled plastic products aren't always feasible for high-performance applications and how blending virgin and recycled materials offers a practical middle ground. Beyond the technical aspects, Dr. Arshad highlights NAIT's partnerships across diverse sectors—from industrial manufacturers to Alberta's beekeeping industry—showing how circular economy principles can be applied across our economy.
This interview with Dr. Arshad is related to the interview The circular economy unplugged with insights from Alberta Innovates' Mehr Nikoo.
Ready to support plastic sustainability? Choose reusable products over single-use items, select products containing recycled content, and ensure you're following proper recycling guidelines in your community. Listen now to understand how Alberta researchers are transforming what we've traditionally viewed as waste into valuable resources for our future.
Additional reading:
- Economic Study of the CANADIAN PLASTIC INDUSTRY, MARKETS AND WASTE (opens a pdf)
- Zero Plastic Waste
Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.
Good day friends, fellows, country people, happy to have you join us today. Now in this episode we're following up part two, so to speak, of our feature on circular economy and what that could mean for Alberta and Canada. Today we're going to sit down with Nate, our pals over there doing some really cool work with post-consumer recycled plastics. Sit back, settle in. Welcome to Shift. My guest today is NAIT Applied Research Lead, dr Mohamed Arshad. Dr Arshad, it's very nice to see you this morning. Thanks for joining me.
Muhammad:Thank you so much. It's nice to join you as well, for this podcast.
Jon:So let's start right off at the top and maybe I'll just get you to describe what NAIT's Plastic Research in Action program is all about.
Muhammad:NAIT Plastic Research Action program. Actually, this is a collaborative applied research program between NAIT and Heartland Polymers. Part of it is from interpipeline as well, with the focus of finding ways for innovative solution for circular economy to, I would say, plastic waste circularity. So the main purpose is to build a sustainable circular economy. This is a 10-year with $10 million project where NAIT researchers work with Heartland Polymers to develop solutions for plastic recycling and reuse.
Jon:I see, okay, and I'm going to reference our listeners to a previous podcast that I had done with a colleague from Alberta Innovates, mayor Niku, where she defines circular economy and all of that. So people go give that a listen to as well, so you'll understand what circular economy is about. And then we'll continue along with Dr Arshad. So now I understand that you lead one of the programs within the Plastics Research in Action program, called now, this is a long title. So here we go. I got to take a deep breath Designing for Circularity Development of Polypropylene Blends Using Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic.
Jon:Got to turn that into an acronym. Can you tell me a bit about that program, Dr Ashad?
Muhammad:Yeah, this actually proposed project. Actually, the main purpose is to develop a technology platform to produce polymer blends using polypropylene from heartland polymers mixed with various commercially available post-consumer recycled materials or plastics, while investigating the effect of PCR contents on the thermal, chemical and mechanical properties of the prepared blends, and then provide a techno-economic assessment for the most promising formulations.
Muhammad:Okay, so those most promising formulations you're talking about, those would then become, ideally, a product for consumers to purchase the promising formulations and then by discussing you know with our industry partners how the properties of these projects can, these products can meet the requirements for the specific products. So it all depends on the industry partners. If, if the properties these we are going to develop the product, the properties of that product, is what they need, then definitely they plan to go for their application at some point. But at this moment it is like to find out most promising formulations while evaluating the effect of PCR contents when we are mixing it with virgin polypropylene.
Jon:I see yeah, so let me just step back for a second. You said the acronym PCR.
Muhammad:Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics
Jon:Ah, excellent Okay. I want to be clear on that. Okay, so would you then say what you've just described are the goals of the program? To find those formulations.
Muhammad:Yeah.
Jon:Okay to find those most positive formulations, and what sort of timeline do you have in mind for this?
Muhammad:This project actually consists of initially bench scale and then we have completed almost all the bench scale phase and now we are planning to go on the pilot scale. So we will see how the results will come up on the pilot scale and we are in connection with our industry partners, sharing all the details with them and we'll see how this goes along, but I'm expecting it may be one more year, because we already have spent two years on this one and I think one more year will be a suitable time to complete this project.
Jon:Okay, so bench scale is. That was the first part. You've completed that and you've said this has gone on for a couple of years now. Yeah, and then you move into the pilot phase.
Muhammad:Yeah.
Jon:So then, does that mean that you have some formulations of the polypropylene and post-consumer recycled product that you've put together in that bench phase and are now going to pilot test them?
Muhammad:Yeah, this is what we did yeah.
Jon:Okay, and remind me the name of the industry partner that you have Heartland Polymers, heartland Polymers, okay, yeah. So now I want to step back a little bit and give people a general sense of kind of the life cycle of plastics, because plastics are so ubiquitous and such a part of our lives and you know we've been trained to. You know, reduce, reuse, recycle. So we, you know, as good citizens, we wash out our plastic food containers and we put them in recycling, thinking that that product then goes off somewhere to become a post-consumer recycled product. I'm going to lean on you a little bit here to tell me the reality of the life cycle of plastic.
Muhammad:Yeah, sure you know, when we talk about the life cycle of plastics it starts from production until it gets into waste and then bringing back to circularity or, in a closed loop, to recycle it. So it starts from production and initial use. So what exactly happens in the production? These plastics are made from either petroleum or natural gas, where they go some chemical, where they go some chemical processes to prepare polymers and those polymers actually further blended and injection molded into various products which can be used for various applications, ranging from packaging materials to automotive parts. So after manufacturing, when these plastics serve for their intended purpose, such as food containers or bottles or household products, so once they are used, they become post-consumer waste.
Muhammad:So they are often disposed in recycling bins. They are often disposed in recycling bins, okay, and after that, when they are disposed into recycling bin, the next step is collection and sorting process. So you know recycling facilities. They collect plastic waste, but we know all plastics are not recyclable, so they have to, you know, sort each plastic by type and quality. So after this process, you know all these plastic waste also has some contaminations coming from foods and some other sources.
Muhammad:So after this it is after collection and sorting, they are actually go to the next step, which is processing and cleaning. So these starting sorted or separated plastics are further cleaned to remove any contamination and then shredded into flakes and those flakes are actually melted into pallets forms, and those pallets are actually the raw materials which we named as a post-consumer raw material that can be now further used to develop a product. I would say those raw material will go in a remanufacturing process. So in the remanufacturing process these pallets are blended with virgin poly polymers or with some additives to get again the desired properties, so that these raw material, after mixing with virgin polymers or other you know additives, they can be used again for the same purpose as they were designed and used for the first time and and that's what you're doing with Heartland is you're taking these post-consumer recycled pellets and introducing them to the virgin polypropylene that Heartland has.
Muhammad:Yeah.
Jon:Okay, so a couple of things you had said. Some plastics aren't recyclable.
Muhammad:Yeah.
Jon:And then my second question. I just have to say this, get on record before I forget is what? Why can't we make products with a hundred percent post consumers?
Muhammad:yeah, that's very interesting question you know, I can give an example that why some plastics week it's hard to recycle or we cannot recycle, especially if we take an example of multi-layer packaging materials. So, multi-layered packaging materials, they are actually made up of different, sometimes different, type of plastics, right, and it is hard to sort out, to separate them for better recycling purposes. And some plastics they have a contamination which is hard to get rid of that contamination and that would automatically impacts the properties, affects the properties. So that's why it is it makes hard to recycle such type of plastics.
Muhammad:And when we say about the second question you asked about why we cannot use 100 percent pcr plastics, we can use 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials in the development of different products. But there are some problems that we may not be able to use it for the same application it was designed for at the time of its first use. It was intended to produce or develop at the first time. The reason is because after going through multiple cycles they actually lose their quality. So when they lost their quality it is hard to use the PCR material again for the same type of products. In that case, because they lost their qualities, we have to downgrade or downcycle that material into low value products because of their, you know, compromised quality.
Jon:Okay, okay, so that's the idea of why we introduce some virgin polypropylene. Yes, so we can kind of strengthen it.
Muhammad:Yeah, strengthen it. To get the desired strength and durability, we mix it with virgin polymers.
Jon:I get you. Okay. So if we went 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, if it was a car part at one time, we couldn't use it as a car part again because it's not going to be as strong, for example. Yeah, that's true.
Muhammad:Because you know, after multiple processing and passing through different you know conditions like temperature and processing parameters, they lost their properties. That is the reason it is hard to use them again for the same purpose it was prepared for. So because their qualities are compromised. That's why we may be able to prepare some other products with low quality, I understand.
Jon:Okay, so what happens to the plastics that are that incorporate multiple plastics that can't be recycled? Are they just thrown thrown?
Muhammad:away and the only, the main concern in that case is uh, when there are, you know, different type of uh plastics when we process all, all of them together. Because each plastic has different type of properties and it is not only plastic. Sometimes these multi-layer packaging has some other type of materials as well, like aluminum foil kind of you know. It is also one of the layer in multi-layer packaging. So different type of materials in that plastic packaging. It is hard to, you know, melt them together and then get the desired product for application. So first of all we need to separate those all plastics and then we can, you know, after separation, we can process them for recycling purposes. So here is the challenge how we will separate these different multi-layer packaging, different type of plastics in one package. So that is the main reason, actually the main problem here, the main challenge over here to recycle those plastic material.
Jon:So is that part of what your program is working on is to figure out how to extract all of those.
Muhammad:We are actually not working exactly on this specific project under PREA, but that is kind of one of the examples to let the audience know what actually the challenges are in case of recycling multi-layer packaging materials.
Jon:Okay, okay, so that's the big sticky one is the multi-layer packaging materials. Yeah, have you got some statistics that you can give our listeners a sense of? Like recycled plastics versus, you know, these multi-layer plastics that aren't being recycled?
Muhammad:Yeah, I was reading some, you know, in the statistics reports so I have read like one of the reports says that in past two decades the production of plastic itself has doubled. Two decades the production of plastic itself has in has doubled. So in that way, the plastic waste amount is also twice in number as compared to what it was two decades ago. So if we have a look like, whatever the plastic is being generated, only 9% is being recycled, while the rest of the amount is either going to be landfilled or incinerated, and that is automatically affecting our environment, and some of them leaked into the environment as well. Sure.
Jon:Yeah, 9%, you said 9%.
Muhammad:Yeah, yeah, nine percent. You said nine percent. Yeah, only nine percent plastic is being recycled, while the rest of the amount is either burnt or, you know, landfill or something it goes into the environment, so definitely impacting our environment. So that is, yeah, that's what actually the number is which is being recycled. So we have to bring some.
Jon:yeah, that's a significant amount that's not being recycled. Now we've talked about Heartland and the role they're playing. Talk to me a little bit more about partnerships that you have with other stakeholders. Who else is Nate working with in this regard?
Muhammad:Yeah, regarding partnership with stakeholders, you know it's very crucial for driving innovations, improving sustainability and ensuring regulatory compliance. So these partnerships can you know include, as you are mentioning, some other different you know industry partners or our non-profits and consumers. So NET is working with different industry partners and we have already worked on different our industry partners, one of them, in addition to Priya we worked with ReWaste that one also one of the company we were working to reuse some plastic waste, recycle some plastic waste. We are also working with the Alberta beekeeping industry where we are trying to recycle used beehive foundations which are made up of plastic and once they complete their life cycle, they can't reuse it, so they either burn it or they may go into landfill. So we are also looking into, you know, solution how we can recycle that plastic or reuse that plastic. So that is one of another project we are working with Alberta beekeeping industry.
Jon:Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of that. Okay, so it's a plastic foundation for beehives. Is that what the apiaries are using? Yeah, oh, neat. Tell me a little bit about the impacts the impacts of your work and Nate's work on industry and the larger Alberta community.
Muhammad:When we talk about, like plastic industry, it has significantly influenced Alberta's economy community, presenting both opportunities and challenges. And challenges when we talk about opportunities, we can see that in a plastic industry it generates a lot of revenue and also provides, you know, job opportunities to the individuals in our community. So in that way it is helping, you know, creating opportunities.
Jon:So even government also has created, you know, initiatives and, you know, greater influence or impact on Alberta as well as community as well.
Muhammad:But there's products there, there's opportunity for entrepreneurs to think about how these products can be reused, redeveloped as something else should be spent or provided from industry, partners or governments so that the research can be done to develop more innovative technologies or finding pathways to promote these sustainable circular economy.
Jon:Yeah those opportunities yeah, I get what you're saying. Yeah, those opportunities yeah, I get what you're saying. So what can people do? What can listeners do to mitigate or directly or indirectly support the activities you're working on? And also that notion of plastic recycling? What can they do to be more aware, maybe consume less plastic?
Muhammad:Yeah, there are several ways. Like individuals or businesses or communities and organizations, they can support plastic circularity and sustainability in Alberta and beyond. You know, know all over the world. So I would say like choose reusable plastics or products over single-use plastics. In that way we can reduce plastic waste. The other thing is, when we are selecting any product, it's good to find out the product which contains some recycled contents in it, so that will also help to reduce plastic. And the other thing is, again, if we can choose biodegradable plastic, that will be more helpful in saving our environment. And also, in addition to this, I would say, follow local recycling guidelines to ensure that plastics are disposed of correctly, because you know contaminated plastics, usually they go to landfills and automatically they are going to impact our environment.
Jon:Now, dr Arshad, I think let's wrap it up. There's lots to think about. Is there any final note you'd like to leave us with, or any final thing that we should consider?
Muhammad:I would say, as we have discussed in detail about the recycling and circular economy and we know that the linear model of take, make and waste is highly impacting our environment and bring more programs, funding programs, and bring awareness to the community so that we can promote or enhance more sustainable circular economy. In circular economy, where we don't, you know, waste and dispose of material into landfills, we bring it back to a closed loop so that we can recycle it and bring it back into, you know, reuse for various applications and again and again. For that, actually, I would say, you know, government, industry partners and different organizations and communities should come together to work on this initiative of circular economy as much as we can so that we can save our environment from these questions.
Jon:When you introduce that notion of circularity, it's also again taking something we normally treat as waste, as a valuable resource. And now what's the opportunity to create jobs? What's the opportunity to mitigate our impact upon the environment? But there's a socioeconomic component too that I think we could really develop and create into a huge success. Dr Arshad, I appreciate your time and this was great. Your time and this was great.
Muhammad:Yeah, thank you so much for your time and for inviting me for this podcast. It was nice talking to you.
Jon:It was very nice talking with you as well, thank you. Shift is brought to you by Alberta Innovates. We can be found at your favorite streaming service or online at shiftalbertaainnovatesca. Until next time, you.
