Recycling plastics – Resource efficiency with an optimized sorting method - YouTube

Not every piece of packaging  makes such a spectacular exit.

Millions of packages in Germany simply feel  empty at some point, squeezed out and useless.

The result is two and a half million  tons of packaging waste each year  

that ends up in the yellow bag or the yellow bin.

And from there to a sorting plant.  The problem is different kinds of  

plastic are difficult to separate from  each other and from other materials.

That's why most waste ends up  being used for energy recovery.

The empty packaging is burned for  energy in conventional power plants  

for example or in the steel or cement industry.

At this sorting plant in southern Hessen the  MEILO company plans to greatly increase the  

proportion of reusable waste; the kind  that can be recycled into new products.

Waste is collected from yellow bags and yellow  bins in the surrounding region. The problem is,  

the waste contains material  that doesn't belong here;  

like non-returnable packaging and a large  amount of other household waste as well.

This bottle belongs in the yellow bin.  It's made of high-density polyethylene  

also known as HDPE. As does this bottle  made of polyethylene terephthalate or PET. 

And this bottle cap made of  polypropylene or PP for short. 

These reusable plastics are mixed up with  other materials. A homogeneous stream of  

material gets sorted out later in the  process. First the waste is gathered  

from a 300 kilometer radius that includes  the states of Bavaria, Baden Wuerttemberg,  

Rheinland-Pfalz and Hessen. 120,000 tonnes  of waste are gathered each year. 

That equals around five percent of the waste  collected in yellow bags and bins across Germany.

The sorting takes place almost automatically.

In a large machine hall the flow  of waste runs over a 2.5 kilometer  

long conveyor belt. In the first stage the  material falls into a large rotary sieve. 

Here the various packaging and other  materials are sorted out according to  

size. Smaller pieces simply fall through  the holes. The rest is transported to two  

additional drums. Finally five separate streams  are created containing different size material.

Separating the material by size makes  further sorting procedures much easier.

In a special air separator a blast of  wind blows lighter materials such as  

foil out of the material stream. The air  separator and other machines remove most  

of the foil from the material stream. That  makes the hard plastic easier to sort out.

The more thoroughly the plastic is sorted out,  

the better it can later be used  to create high quality products.

In a further stage an infrared scanner  quickly scans four types of plastic.  

Air pressure can then shoot out  the PP bottle caps for example.

Then comes the PET and finally HDPE  sorted out of the material flow.

Despite the automated sorting process the already  well sorted material streams are then picked  

through by hand. The most useful plastics stay on  the belt. Around one-third of the total initial  

material however consists of mixed plastics  and residual waste that has no further use.  

Everything from old shoes to pieces of wood. It's  all destined for energy recovery incineration. 

Packaging from the yellow bin is put through  more than 30 sorting procedures at the plant  

in Gernsheim. Along with HDPE, PP and PET waste  there are four other plastic fractions here.

The sort of plastic is pressed into bales the  HDPE, PP and PET bales have a purity level of 94  

to 98 percent. This well-sorted plastic waste is a  sought after secondary raw material in the plastic  

processing industry. The plant in Hessen supplies  companies in Germany and in neighboring countries.

HDPE bottles for example are used to  make pipes or specialized pallets. 

PP plugs are often turned  into flowerpots or buckets. 

And PET packaging is turned into fibers used in  flea sweaters or into stylish lawn furniture.

But even if the furniture looks great  and the sweater is comfortable these  

products only have a limited lifespan  within this kind of material recycling.

Producing these products may save raw materials  such as oil but at some point they too will end  

up in the dump or waste incineration plants. Despite all the sorting a full-fledged material  

cycle for plastic packaging  has not yet been created.

To create a genuine cycle, that means a bottle  is made into another bottle, the sordid plastic  

fractions need further processing. Systec  Plastics in Thuringia is doing just that  

at a special plant in the town of Eisfeld.  First HDPE bottles and appear in a shredder.

The resulting plastic shreds  are cleaned of any shampoo,  

yogurt or any other residue. And a special  procedure sorts out the last unwanted remains.  

The result is a colorful mixture of cleaned  flakes that are made almost entirely out  

of HDPE. These still have to be sorted  out by color. If they were melted down  

as is they turn a dirty gray. This color  sorting takes place in a special sorter.

Special mechanics allow the machine to  isolate single flakes from a large mass.

HDPE particles are run over a slide  piece-by-piece. Tens of thousands  

per minute. LEDs light up the material stream  while sensors recognize the different colors.  

The data is analyzed by a computer which  controls a panel fitted with more than  

60 compressed air nozzles. A blast of air  shoots out the unwanted colors. Only the  

colorless flakes remain if so desired. After  this process is carried out over the first  

two slides it's repeated on the next two.  And the final repetition on the last one.

The result is an output of 800 kilograms of  

sorted HDPE flakes per hour with a  purity level well above 99 percent.

The materials melted at 220 degrees Celsius in an  extruder. The melt is pressed through a filter and  

once again purified. Then the liquefied plastic  is cooled and processed into granules. The result  

is a high-quality raw material that is put to  use nearly everywhere in the plastics industry.

Besides HDPE packaging, polypropylene or PP caps  

are put through these elaborate cleaning  sorting and processing stages as well.

Every year around 20,000 tons of  material from the yellow sack is  

processed here in Eisfeld. But only a  small portion gets the full treatment.

Production capacity is set  to increase in the future  

and the procedure is to be further improved.

"We can already take plastic from the yellow  bag and turn it back into plastic. We now plan  

to enter areas related to the food industry. We`ll  start with cosmetics then move on to food at some  

points. We think it'll take a few years and then  our plastic will be hygienic enough for that."

Recycled material from Eisfeld is already  sought-after by the makers of washing and  

cleaning products. At its location  in Mainz the Werner & Mertz company  

produces more than 130,000 tons  of foamy and fragrant detergents.

Normally the packaging ends up in the yellow  bag. To complete the material cycle the company  

tries to use as much plastic as possible from  the yellow bag to produce its bottles. The  

HDPE granulate from Eisfeld is fed here into a  machine. It's then melted in a special extruder.  

The bottles are formed under air pressure.  Afterwards excess material is trimmed off and  

the bottles are ready. Even though these bottles  were made using only recycled plastic from the  

yellow bag any standard production facility could  manufacture them. Finally the HDPE bottles are  

filled up as usual and delivered to shops.  Five and a half million bottles each year.

It's not only HDPE bottles that are  made of recyclable material. These  

PP caps are also produced using 100  percent plastic from the yellow bag.  

Once again it's recycled granulate  from Eisfeld that does the job.

"We use recycled material from the yellow  bag for our PET and HDPE bottles and for  

our PP caps. And we hope to increase this  share in the future. We're still looking for  

market partners in this initiative in order  to further lower recycling material costs."

In other words: the more packaging producers  use recycling material from the yellow bag  

the greater the production capacity will grow.  Making it more economical to use this recycled  

material. At Werner & Mertz PET bottles  make up a large share of packaging. Despite  

all the sorting with high-tech machinery  adequate quantities of PET granulate from  

the yellow bag still aren't available. So  PET granulate from the yellow bag is mixed  

with PET granulate from the deposit system.  Mostly made from empty beverage bottles.

The free forms from the first production stage  and Mainz are blown into bottles and later filled.

In the end they're made of 20  percent PET plastic from the  

yellow bag and 80 percent plastic  from the deposit system. More than  

80 million bottles are produced this  way each year at the plant in Mainz.

The company aims to gradually increase the share  of PET bottles made with yellow bag material while  

at the same time using more of this high-quality  recycled plastic for all of its packaging.

That means an HDPE bottle is made from  another HDPE bottle. A PP cap from a PP cap. 

And a PET bottle from another PET bottle. 

That preserves the raw materials and  energy invested in plastic production.  

Until now only a fraction of packaging  from the yellow bag and bin got recycled.  

But experience shows that plastic from the  yellow bag can be used in a material cycle.

And no matter how unspectacular the  shot at least it's one bottle more.