Meet Brian: One of America’s Change Makers
“If you want to solve a problem, you really have to understand it first.”
Obstacles to Recycling More Plastic
Who better to understand the challenges of stubbornly low plastic recycling rates than a polymer scientist. Like Brian Schmatz, senior manager at Trinamix GMBH, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest plastic makers: BASF.
“You’re not going to change the plastics industry as a full outsider without the knowledge of what’s going on inside. But if you’re within the plastics industry, you have the ability to affect change with an informed standpoint.”
That’s what Brian has set out to do: affect sustainable change in plastic recycling.
“There’s definitely a lot of public pressure around plastic materials not being recycled. Here in the U.S. the recycling rate for plastics is hovering around 9%.”
While the recycling rate for plastic bottles and containers is higher (around 30%), many other plastics are lagging. One of the obstacles to higher rates: There are lots of types of plastic. They typically need to be collected and separated before they have value as recycled plastic.
Technology Can Help Improve Plastic Recycling
Brian is helping make that easier. How? By taking technology used in laboratories and large recycling facilities and putting it in the hands of people who can make a difference.
It’s called near infrared spectroscopy.
“Near infrared spectroscopy has kind of been a tried-and-true quality control technology throughout many industries, like agriculture, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.”
Plus: plastic recycling. Brian explains:
“I throw a plastic bottle into my blue bin, and it goes to a recycling center. They use near infrared spectroscopy to sort all of this plastic. And that’s really the backbone of our recycling industry.”
“The issue is, there’s a lot of things that exist on the periphery of curbside recycling that still need to be recycled. And to do that, we need to be able to sort them. Things like windmill blade turbines. Things like carpets, mattresses, textiles and other types of unique plastics that you can’t throw in a curbside bin but still very much can and should be recycled.”
His company has built an innovative new tool to help.
“Our device is a handheld near infrared spectrometer. What’s really cool about it is its accessibility. By bringing this technology into more hands, we’re able to capture these different recycling materials that previously have just been sent to a landfill. So we’re really opening up new opportunities. And that equals more plastics being recycled.”
Point the handheld device at a plastic material – a used carpet, packaging, fishing nets, industrial film – and up pops the makeup of that plastic on a cell phone. No need for expensive, time consuming testing in labs that can stymie recycling.
“Most of our customers can really just pull it out of the box and understand how to use it within a couple of minutes.”
Brian works with multiple companies that are looking to improve recycling and contribute to sustainability. Including longtime plastic
recyclers.
“One of our staple customers are plastic recyclers themselves who get plastic resources from all over the place. Some of them can only recycle one type of polymer. So it’s very important that they know what’s coming into their site because if they accidentally put some PET into their polypropylene, it can mess up that whole batch. We’re really enabling these recyclers right there at the loading dock to check materials that are coming in.”
Recycling the Un-Recyclables into a New Life
That’s one way Brian helps affect sustainable change in plastic recycling. But what does he enjoy doing even more?
“The more fun and exciting stuff is how we’ve met these recycling communities around the world that are tackling wastes that many of us will never see.”
“Just last year, we worked with a group in Seattle called Net Your Problem that’s working with local fishermen and the commercial fishing industry to bring in uncaptured waste. Things like fishing nets, fishing lines, boots, jackets, other things that can find their way into the water. By equipping this group with our devices, they’ve been able to classify the polymers, separate them and then find a new life.”
A new life?
“A good example is fishing nets, commonly made of nylon. Our parent company BASF actually does a lot of work with nylon. So we were not only able to help classify and sort the waste, we were able to say, ‘Now that you’ve got a clean stream of nylon, we have a customer for you in BASF who can find it a new home.’ In things like furniture and automotive parts instead of just sitting on a waterfront somewhere and making its way into the ocean.”
New Device Unleashes More Plastic Recycling Opportunities
This new device enables new recycling business models to grow quickly.
“Net Your Problem was a good example. Before [they had access to a scanner)]they didn’t have a way of classifying this waste. They had to guess or send it to labs, which are expensive and time consuming. But in this case, they’re able to actually start a business and scale it, as well. They now have sites on the East and West Coasts using our device. And so a small company can quickly scale their operations, which is really cool to see.”
And it’s making its way around the globe.
“Our portable technology is very accessible. This has enabled us to find new groups like Net Your Problem, like ocean plastic cleanup groups, like small recyclers in Southeast Asia and Africa who are building recycling streams, building recycling infrastructure. They can use our device as they start coming online before they invest in much more capital expensive, dedicated equipment.”
As Brian said:
“If you want to solve a problem, you really have to understand it first.”
As a polymer scientist, he understands the problem he’s trying to solve. And for him, it all comes down to marrying his science background with his desire to help solve pressing global problems.
“I did graduate work in polymer chemistry, specifically for renewable energy applications like solar cells, and just kind of kept going down that route. Having the ability to keep working on plastics at BASF has been really nice.”
“I get to use what I learned in the past and take it beyond the R&D scale and see how it’s impacting real recycling.”
Thank you, Brian, for helping solve a problem and making the world a better place.
We wish Brian and his colleagues continued success.
