Recycling plastics packaging waste excluding bottle

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

Municipal waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the EU, with an anticipated increase of 42.5 % from 1995 to 2020. In light of this trend, new technologies have been developed to promote and optimise the sorting of mixed products for recycling. These new approaches allow light waste products, which may have previously been considered unsuitable for recycling, to be reused.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this LIFE project is to demonstrate that waste of various ‘blister’ or light packaging, normally considered as not economically recyclable, can be re-usable, and that innovative and effective recycling processes exist as alternatives to incineration or landfill. A pilot installation will be set up using innovative technologies such as granulators and micronisators to process, mill and grind waste products in a cryogenic low temperature atmosphere. Plastics will be recycled into valuable raw material and light re-compounding is forecast to restore their thermoplastic properties. Technology to be applied includes: calendering of sheets/films (using heated rollers); thermoforming; extrusion; injection and blowing. Project outcomes are predicted to hold strong transferability potential and help facilitate more recycling of light packaging. A robust set of evaluation and dissemination procedures will be implemented to provide a wide range of waste stakeholders with detailed information about the project’s actions and findings.

Expected results: The project will demonstrate the feasibility of cost-effectively recycling light plastic packaging (excluding PET and PEHD bottles and Tetrapak liquid packaging board). It is expected that the project will achieve the following results:

Recycling of some 4 500 tonnes/yr of targeted plastic waste by the end of the project (1 200 tonnes in 2012, 2 500 tonnes in 2013, and 4 500 tonnes in 2014);

This result will be built on and annual recycling capacities will rise to 15 000 tonnes/yr by 2020.

Predicted resource savings from the new approach by the end of the project include:

Saving 45 000 m3 of water and some 4 000 TOE (tonnes of oil equivalent) of fossil energy;

Reducing CO2 emissions by 9 000 tonnes. Targets for 2020 include saving 150 000 m3 of water and some 14 500 TOE, plus preventing 20 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.