Sustainable and Innovative - Leonhard Kurz promotes circular recycling economy

Fuerth/Germany, 08/01/2021: Life Cycle Thinking is anchored in Kurz's corporate goals. The com-mitment to sustainability and the active advancement of the circular recycling economy is now clearly re-flected in this year's appearance of the company at the all-digital CES innovation show.

Under the theme Earth Attraction, the global player from Fürth in Germany is showing product and design innovations, plus addressing sustainable and highly effective solutions for a variety of industries. The new design concept Gravity Forces, inspired by the elements of fire, water, earth and air, as well as environ-mentally friendly plastic decoration innovations, presented under the name New Ground, pay homage to nature, which Kurz aims to preserve. With Circle of Life, the company also shows its commitment to sus-tainability at all levels, from production to waste recycling.

The Kurz vision is a holistic recycling progression with a high degree of design freedom, while simultane-ously being cost efficient. In order to make this idea a reality, the experts at Leonhard Kurz are continu-ously researching new products and processes.

Sustainability competence along the entire value chain

How can material and energy be saved without losing quality? At which points can waste be avoided in the future? The company asks itself questions like these continuously and sees itself as responsible along the entire value chain - in its own production processes, in the customer's application process, as well as the end product and recycling.

In the manufacture of decoration materials, the company relies largely on renewable energy - in Germany achieving 100 percent thanks to the company's own solar power capability. In addition, complete exhaust air treatment with energy recovery contributes to a resource-saving production process.

Kurz decorations do not limit the recyclability of products

On the one hand, the extremely thin transfer decorations from Kurz generally do not impair the recyclabil-ity of plastic components, as various tests have shown. They also enhance the appearance of recycled materials; high-quality refined recyclates are in no way inferior to decorated new materials. The compo-nents made of recycled material can be used with Kurz decorations just as aesthetically and with the same versatility. There are no visual differences to parts made from new material, unless the customer so wishes. Then, with approaches such as Speckle Design, creative variants are available that visually un-derline the recycling concept.

The application process at the customer can also be mapped in an environmentally friendly way - for
example, using so-called dry chrome decoration instead of electroplating for metallic effects on surfaces. Both the hot stamping process and the In-Mold Decoration process, IMD for short, are dry and solvent-free. Since the IMD process combines two work steps in one - the production and the decoration of the component - it is also more energy efficient than other processes.

Avoid waste - or recycle with a unique recycling program

At Kurz, the recycling of recyclable materials is of particular importance. Here it is important to find sensi-ble and environmentally friendly solutions for reuse: For example, the company uses harmless stamping foil waste as a substitute fuel for energy. However, a milestone in recycling has now been achieved with the in-house recycling program for PET carrier film waste from customers, for which a recycling plant was set up. The program is to be expanded step by step in the future.

In addition to people and the environment, Kurz's customers in particular benefit from the extensive com-mitment to sustainability. Thanks to this know-how, they can improve their own CO₂ balance and expand their competitive advantage.