Here at Seraphim Plastics, we rely on a mechanical recycling process to turn scrap industrial plastic into reusable regrind. Although our process is both simple and effective, we are not able to recycle every type of plastic. There is always some plastic that goes to waste. That may eventually change thanks to a Danish research project that utilizes pyrolysis to reclaim plastic waste. Pyrolysis is not a new process by any stretch. But the Danish researchers have come up with a way to harness it to reclaim plastics that otherwise cannot be recycled. These are end-of-life and mixed plastics that ..read more

It is common knowledge that less than 10% of all the plastics produced globally get recycled. Most of what does consists of post-industrial plastics that go to recyclers already sorted and cleaned. If we could figure out how to flip the numbers – to recycle 90% and dispose of 10% – how would all the recycled material be put to use? Infrastructure is one possibility. A July 2023 report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) calls for government leaders in the U.S. to start working on policies that would standardize plastic manufacturing and recycling ..read more

We are closing in on the end of another successful year of commercial and industrial plastic recycling here at Seraphim Plastics. As we look forward to 2024, we know our industry will face challenges. But as we do with each new year, we will face those challenges head-on in ways that allow us to keep serving our clients in Tennessee and beyond. Looking ahead, we see a number of potentially impactful challenges coming our way. How the industrial plastic recycling industry deals with those challenges will set the stage for continued operations in years to come. As always, Seraphim Plastics will ..read more

New grading specifications for three types of recyclable plastic are coming in 2024. The new specs were recently announced by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) in conjunction with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR). If all goes well, the new specifications should enhance ongoing efforts to better recycle certain kinds of plastics. According to Recycling Today’s Brian Taylor, the new specs apply to three types of recycled polypropylene (PP): Small rigid plastic. Mixed small rigid plastic. Mixed bulky rigid plastic. An ISRI representative told Taylor that the “specifi ..read more

Anyone who follows plastic recycling in the news understands that the latest push among sustainability proponents is to reduce the amount of plastic we manufacture and use. The chief complaint is that recycling doesn’t work. However, the extent to which that is true really isn’t a plastic problem. It is a process problem. Enter a brand-new recycling plant in Sweden, a plant that could very well define the future of plastic recycling. Known as Site Zero, the plant is the world’s largest plastics sorting facility and recycling center. It is located in Motala, Sweden and operated by Svensk Plast ..read more

We both buy and sell industrial plastic here at Seraphim Plastics. The plastic we sell is regrind – essentially scrap plastic reduced to small pellets ready to be combined with virgin plastic for new manufacturing. Granted, there are some concerns with regrind in terms of product quality and repeatability. But those concerns can be effectively addressed. Regrind is certainly not appropriate for each and every part manufactured with plastic. But it is appropriate for quite a few applications. If your company is involved in traditional injection mold manufacturing and you have never considered ..read more

Seraphim Plastics acquires all sorts of industrial scrap plastic, ranging from cutoffs and purge to plastic pallets and dunnage trays. To us, industrial scrap plastic is more than just waste. It is our bread and butter. Yet there is more to it than just the fact that we buy scrap plastic and turn it into a regrind product we can sell to manufacturers. Industrial plastic recycling is our business. But think about recycling on a grander scale. Think about all the waste we collectively dispose of in landfills. How many millions of tons are buried in huge holes in the ground? Human Activity Gener ..read more

Your company has a plastic problem. It is not the same landfill problem we constantly read about in the news. That problem still exists, but yours is more immediate: you have a bunch of industrial plastic waste taking up space your company could use for other things. You just don’t know what to do with the plastic. Here at Seraphim Plastics, our business is built on helping companies like yours solve their plastic problems. How do we do that? By taking scrap plastic off our customers’ hands and converting it into a marketable regrind product. We send our trucks to the customer’s location for ..read more

There is an ongoing debate over whether the world should continue attempting to recycle post-consumer plastics. As the thinking goes, post-consumer plastic recycling has been a colossal failure to date, and continuing to do it doesn’t make sense. The better choice is to ban plastic altogether. But is it? A new economic viability study out of Europe suggests that certain types of plastics normally associated with consumer use can be recycled in an economically viable way. The study distinguishes between what can and cannot be recycled effectively by establishing a new class of plastics: non-ho ..read more

The entire Seraphim Plastics team is proud to be able to say that we constantly strive to provide the best service possible. Whether it is buying and picking up post-industrial scrap plastic for recycling or filling orders for the plastic regrind we produce, making sure our customers are satisfied is priority number one. As a potential seller, you are important to us. Perhaps you’ve been looking for a company like ours to buy your industrial plastic waste. You have tried a few companies but none of them met your needs. Now what? Well, we would like to pose a question: what are you looking for ..read more