Extrusion International USA 5-2021

25 Extrusion International 5/2021 we’re watching is SB 343. It would create a prescribed list of recyclable materials and would prevent the use of the chasing arrows symbol on any material not listed. Incredibly, PET ther- moforms, whichpackage somuchof California’s freshproduce would not be considered recyclable and would instead be land fi lled. There are strong, viable, and growing markets for this material in California and this legislation would prevent their recycling. In sum, one bill requires recycled content from materials that the other bill does not consider recyclable. What role do directives play for your members in the US mar- ket that, like the example of tethered caps, are currently be- coming binding for the European market? Radoszewski: We continue to see legislation pushing teth- ered caps. These efforts are not as signi fi cant as has been the case in the past. However, Maine andMassachusetts both had bills introduced on the subject this year. Other directives we have been following are recycled content mandates in plastic bottles. Last year California passed a recycled content law, and this year Maine and Washington both passed similar laws. The challenging global situation entailed the shift of the NPE show to 2024. Which (strategic) changes, dif fi culties but also opportunities resulted from that for you? What possibilities are you going to tackle to strengthen the relationship with your exhibitors, visitors and of course your direct members, also in the interim period? Radoszewski: Organisations across the globe have found new meaning in the old idiom “necessity is the mother of inven- tion.” The past 18 months or so have been jarring in so many ways, but our association has been more agile and adaptable than even I thought possible. We’ve accepted challenges as opportunities and have hosted numerous virtual events to maintain strong engagement with our members and stake- holders. At the same time, nothing can fully replace the in- person dynamics of a trade show of the size and scale of NPE. That’s why we’re laying the groundwork right now for the NPE2024 to be the best NPE ever. We are looking forward to it. Thank you very much! The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) 1425 K Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005 United States plasticsindustry.org „ Next Generation Recycling Machines, Inc. is the sales and after sales organization for Next Generation Recycling Maschinen GmbH (NGR) in the USA. From there North- and South American markets are being covered. The previous location north of Atlanta has been moved fur- ther south close to the International Airport in Atlanta, Geor- gia. Much bigger in size now, the portfolio, competence and capacity has been increased massively. Peter Schneider, President of NGR, Inc.: „From our new lo- cation we are offering a vastly improved portfolio. Strategi- cally positioned very close to the International Terminal of the well-known Atlanta airport (ATL) we found a new home. From here we can showcase our increased service offering, our competence, and the largely increased technical center in a very improved fashion. We are operating recycling ma- U.S. Customer Care Center Relocated and Size Increased chines on production scale for post-industrial and post-con- sumer applications and markets. Customers can recycle their materials in scheduled test runs on various extruder, fi ltra- tion and pelletizer con fi gurations. From there they can re- introduce the recycled pellets into their production processes and evaluate the success. We pick up our customers at the airport and minutes later they can see their materials run- ning on our machines. It does not get any easier than this. “ The new customer center supports the growth and success of Next Generation Recycling Maschinen GmbH worldwide and speci fi cally in the local markets. Availability of spare parts on site and capacity and capability of the service team are fur- ther being increased. All sales activities for the local markets are being controlled from here as well. Peter Schneider: „Competition for talent made it speci fi cally during Covid-19 necessary to offer an attractive work envi- ronment. With the new location we tripled our footprint for of fi ces and our technical center, and we are offering fl exible work arrangements.” As a further expansion of capabilities an additional cutter- compactor-combination recycling line (C:GRAN) will be added to the test center in May 2022, speci fi cally targeting typical post-consumer applications, which speci fi cally in the U.S. market became more important recently. Customers will be able to process and test their post-consumer materials on this additional lab machine by June 2022. Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH www.ngr-world.com