 The use of electrostatic techniques for the identification and sorting of waste packaging materialsG.L. Hearn and J.R. Ballard Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2005, vol. 44, issue 1, 91-98 Abstract: Techniques have been developed which enable items of domestic waste packaging to be identified and sorted into material groups prior to recycling. Plastic packaging items can be separated from items of similar size and shape constructed from cardboard, wood or paper. This is achieved by applying a controlled level of electrostatic charge and comparing the rate of charge relaxation using a non-contacting electric field meter. Plastic packaging items such as bottles, food tubs and trays are subsequently streamed into their polymer groups using a series of tribo-electric probes. The probes are brought into contact with the packaging materials to be identified and comprise a rotating head or drum, which generates an electrostatic charge due to the friction between the head and the item to be identified. Since the magnitude and polarity of the generated charge depends on the polymers comprising both the head material and the packaging material, a degree of identification can be obtained. Keywords: Electrostatics; Plastic; Packaging; Sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:44:y:2005:i:1:p:91-98 DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2004.08.001 Access Statistics for this article Resources, Conservation & Recycling is currently edited by Ming Xu More articles in Resources, Conservation & Recycling from Elsevier |
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