A two-hour drive from Greiner’s headquarters in Kremsmünster, Upper Austria, the Zeroplast team is working on a new plastic. In Spillern/Lower Austria, recipes are being worked on with lime, wood fibers and rice wax. The first successes have already been achieved, as “Krone” was able to see with their own eyes during a visit to the company location.
Josef-Schleps-Straße 5 in Spillern: If you search for this address on Google Maps and look at the satellite images stored there, you will see piles of sand and construction equipment. There is now an industrial estate here, where Greiner Zeroplast is also located.
A two-hour drive from the plastics processor’s headquarters in Kremsmünster, a three-person team in the Lower Austrian market town is working on a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics, which will then be used for the production of injection molded parts in series production: bottles, trays, closures. “The ingredients are lime, rice wax and wood fibers,” explains director Philipp Kranewitter.
Cooperation with Boku and the FH Upper Austria
At the beginning of this year, an injection molding machine was installed next to the system where the ingredients are mixed together to form the mass to be processed. The Zeroplast team has now tried out more than 240 different recipes, which are checked in a department at Boku Vienna in Tulln.
The Transfer Center for Plastics Technology at the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences in Wels will also help make the idea of biodegradable plastic a reality.
Lower temperatures required
A major advantage of the natural product? “Much less temperature is required than when processing conventional plastic,” says Roland Riepl, head of Greiner’s innovation factory. But Riepl also knows: “The injection molding process with our material still takes too long. So it is not yet suitable for industrial production.”
He then moves one of the Zeroplast sticks, which are currently being produced hundreds of times for testing purposes, towards his nose: “It smells so good,” says Riepl. In fact, the future of plastics smells like wax here.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
