New Plastic Recycling Process In Europe

New Plastic Recycling Process In Europe

Plastic waste is an increasingly environmental problem all the world. European Countries have about 60 million tons of plastic every year, but only 30% can be recycled. For all the plastic waste generated, at least 70% will be landfilled or thrown in the natural environment as garbage. However, as Europe begins to transition to a circular economy, where materials are reused at the end of their useful life instead of being thrown away, improved plastic recycling has begun to play an important role in the circular economy.

The recent series of measures taken by the European Commission will help improve the sustainability of plastics.

According to media reports, several new recycling technologies are now being tested, which may allow plastic products such as disposable food packaging, fiber-reinforced auto parts and mattress foam polymers to have a second life and become like new ones.

Packaging is usually made of several different types of plastic, yes, making recycling more challenging.

Fresh foods such as meat and cheese usually have multiple layers of protection, such as lids, films and trays, which are not made of the same type of plastic. When disposing of different plastics, they need to be separated, because in the traditional recycling process, different plastics cannot be mixed together well. However, separation is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, such items usually cannot be recycled or considered impossible to be recycled and reused.

Fiber-reinforced composite materials are also facing a similar fate. Such plastic-based materials, reinforced with glass or carbon fiber, can be used in a variety of automotive interior and exterior parts, from bumpers and textile coverings to door panels. Since it is difficult to separate different materials, such materials are usually incinerated at the end of their life.

However, people still can find technology to help with plastics recycling.

As part of the MultiCycle project, Dr. Bugnicourt and project partners expanded a process called CreaSolv developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Munich, Germany, which allows multilayer packaging materials and fiber-reinforced composites The material is reborn again and again.

Using a solvent-based formula, different types of plastics and fibers can be extracted and dissolved in the solvent to achieve separation. Then, such polymers (the long-chain molecules that make up the plastic) are recovered from the solution in solid form, and then reshaped into plastic pellets. The recycled fibers can also be reused.

So far, compared with existing methods, the process shows better prospects.

The traditional mechanical recycling method, plastics are usually degraded during the treatment process, so their uses are limited. Chemical recycling is an emerging technology that can turn plastics into small molecules or monomers. Although high-quality plastics can be manufactured, such plastics may be energy-intensive products. With the CreaSolv recycling method, the quality of recycled plastic is high and the process is more efficient.

Now, the team has been using multilayer packaging and composite materials for small-scale experiments to test the process. At the same time, they are designing a large-scale pilot plant in Bavaria, which will start trials in July. Dr. Bugnicourt said that the main challenge is to dispose of plastic waste made of complex plastic mixtures on a large scale.

The members of the team are also developing a system to monitor the composition of plastic waste. They hope to automatically identify the types of plastic and fiber in the product in order to optimize the recycling process based on the batch of recycled materials. Dr. Bugnicourt believes that the system can be installed in existing recycling plants to expand the types of recycled plastics, and special facilities can be built to treat industrial waste.

Improving the existing recycling process can also reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste that is difficult to reuse. Although some commonly used plastics, such as PET plastic used to make beverage bottles, are widely recycled, plastics with more special uses are often not widely recycled. Technical obstacles are one of the reasons.

Dr. Garcia Armingol, Director of the Energy and Environment Group of the CIRCE Energy Research Center in Spain, and his colleagues are demonstrating ways to increase the recycling rate of difficult-to-recycle plastics, which is also part of the POLYNSPIRE project. They mainly focus on polyamide plastics used in parts such as automobile gears and airbags, and flexible polyurethane foam plastics used in products such as mattresses and carpets.

The research team believes that traditional recycling methods can be improved and the quality of recycled plastics can be improved. To this end, they are studying two technologies: adding glass material (a relatively new plastic that is both tough and tough) and adding high-energy radiation. Dr. Garcia Armingol said: "The main goals of these two technologies are to improve the wear resistance of recycled materials and improve their performance so that they can be used in demanding applications."

The other innovative technologies they are exploring can improve the chemical recycling method. This technology has great potential in achieving a circular economy because it allows plastics to be continuously recycled while maintaining high quality.

However, the environmental footprint of the technology can also be reduced. For example, the use of microwaves or smart magnetic materials can reduce the energy required to generate heat to achieve polymerisation. When a polymerization reaction occurs, the monomers produced by the recycling process unite to form the long-chain molecules that make up the plastic.

So far, the team has been testing such technologies in the laboratory. Now they are preparing for the manufacturing phase of the project, when they will prove that such technology is feasible on a semi-industrial scale. Currently, they are working on the pretreatment and purification stages of recycling.

The next step of the project is to prove that the quality of the plastic produced by this type of technology is good enough to replace the original material. Dr. Garcia Armingol and colleagues will focus on certain applications, such as automotive parts and mattresses that have strict quality requirements. Close cooperation with industrial partners in the automotive industry, chemical and waste management companies is also the key to the adoption of such technologies.

Posted by Leila.
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