Plastone is a subcontractor of plastic components and final products mainly to other industries, like electrical industry, machines and devices and healthcare products. In PlastLIFE Plastone develops the use of factory side streams for new products. There is already a recycling system for packaging plastics in Finland, but not for technical plastics Plastone mainly uses. The challenge of recycling technical plastics is the countless different variations. It is very difficult to mechanically recycle plastic parts returning from the use, because it is impossible to tell what plastic it is exactly. Even if the quality is marked, there are also countless variations that affect the processing of the plastic. Therefore, chemical recycling, i.e. returning plastic to its elements, is the only reasonable option. This is expensive and loses the fine properties of technical plastics, so it is not economically viable. Plastone's goal is to collect production side streams from manufacturers in the surrounding area, of which we know exactly what raw material they are, and to collect sufficient volumes from them for mechanical recycling. In mechanical recycling, the plastic product is ground into small pieces and melted again, and new products are made directly from it. For this purpose, the project also develops a new product or products suitable for such recycled materials, which will be delivered to the market through partners or group companies.
As the first pilot product has been selected a veterinary speculum for otoscope, especially for dogs, designed in the project. This is a disposable or multi-use hygiene protection and a light guide, which allows the veterinarian to examine the animal's ear canal. Usually, specula designed for humans are used for animals, but these are rarely well suited for that purpose, because animal ear canals are usually longer than human ear canals. There are some similar products on the market, but they are often of poor quality. It seems that there is plenty of room on the market for a good quality veterinary speculum made from recycled material.
In the project, an injection moulding mould for the speculum is made, and the first trials are supposed to be made at the beginning of September. The recycled materials for the first batches have been found and the investigation of additional materials continues.