Mr. Blass, can you please briefly outline the 'green chainge recycling program'?
Michael Blass: In most cases, energy chains are simply disposed of and incinerated with other plastic waste at the end of their service life. With the 'green chainge recycling program', we offer an alternative: Users can send their plastic chains to Igus for recycling. On site, we separate the material by type and process the material that can be used for our production into regranulate.
Customers thus save disposal costs and also receive a voucher for purchasing from Igus. In this way, both customers and the environment benefit equally.

At the start of the program, you accepted discarded, cleaned plastic chains completely independently of their manufacturer, without any exclusion criteria for the acceptance of discarded plastic chains. Is that still the case?
Yes, that is the great advantage of the chainge program: We take back drag and energy chains regardless of the manufacturer. This still applies.

How has the program been received in the market?
The quantities that are recycled are increasing significantly from year to year. We have already collected and recycled 32.3 tons of material through the chainge program. Based on this experience, we assume that we will be able to at least double the results achieved so far in 2022.

How are the recycled plastics reused? What can the recycled pellets be used for?

When the chains arrive at Igus, the plastics are sorted by material type, cleaned, shredded and packaged. They can then be reused by Igus - or, as is planned, by other companies for the production of high-quality technical products.

The recycling program was launched in Germany - does Igus now also offer it in other markets?

So far, 13 countries have taken part in the program: Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, France, China, Italy, Brazil, Malaysia, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Spain. The majority of return deliveries come from Germany and China.

At the beginning of 2020, Igus further expanded its recycling activities and invested in a pioneer in chemical recycling, Mura Technology. What is the current status here?

With the innovative HydroPRS (Hydro Plastic Recycling Solution) technology developed by Mura Technology, plastic waste can be converted back into crude oil in just 20 to 25 minutes - using only pressure, high temperature and water. The first large-scale plant is due to go into operation in the second half of this year at Wilton International's site in Teesside in the north-east of England. Work on this is progressing at full speed.

What other recycling plans does Igus have?

We are making greater use of recycled plastics ourselves for our motion plastics. At our virtual-real trade fair IMPS and later at the Hannover Messe, we are currently presenting completely new products that are made from 100% recycled materials - including the 'cradle-chain E2.1.CG' , the world's first energy chain made from recycled plastic. The catalog range comprises five series with 28 chain types - and the user receives the same technical properties and load limits as with the 'classic' energy chain made of standard igumid G material.