Sorting black plastics into pure grades closes recycling loops

Credit/Quelle: Steinert

UniSort BlackEye is one of the the world’s first machine capable of pure-grade detection and sorting of black PE and PP plastics, and has been used around the globe since 2016

Credit/Quelle: Steinert

$If the material to be sorted contains a mix of black plastics, it can be separated into pure-grade polymer fractions$ Credit/Quelle: Steinert

If the material to be sorted contains a mix of black plastics, it can be separated into pure-grade polymer fractions

Credit/Quelle: Steinert

STEINERT UniSort Black is able to detect dark and black plastics using state-of-the-art NIR technology and separate them from the waste stream

Credit/Quelle: Steinert

Everyone involved in the plastics industry is concerned with strict legislation and a social sense of responsibility for recovering plastics. Black plastics represent a particular challenge because they cannot be detected with the optical sorting technology found in standard recycling plants. STEINERT technology allows black plastics to be sorted from the general waste stream and to be sorted into pure grades. This enables plastic-processing companies to respond to the new challenges of the circular economy in a cost-effective manner and to be equipped for all the processes involved in plastic recovery and processing in equal measure.

Since 2011, STEINERT has been developing detection technology for very challenging sorting applications and providing forward-looking reference projects, which document that plastics and the environment are compatible.

For example, STEINERT was one of the first companies to be able to detect black plastics and thereby positively separate them, allowing recycling rates to be increased. Sophisticated air flow technology also makes STEINERT the only company to be able to cost-effectively sort flat and lightweight black materials. What’s more, the pure-grade separation of black polyolefins (PO) into their constituent parts, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), but also polystyrene (PS) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymers (ABS) allows polymer granulates to be replaced by mint-condition recyclates.

Turning plastic residues into new goods - thanks to pure-grade separation

Plastic-processing companies in particular can therefore benefit from STEINERT products and separate plastic residues containing a high proportion of black content at large-scale industry level and then upgrade them to a plastic granulate with properties similar to those of the primary raw material in order for it to be used to manufacture durable quality products. This procedure means that a significant percentage of new plastics can be replaced with recycled materials today, thereby saving hundreds of thousands of tons of CO₂ every year.

State-of-the-art technologies coupled with 130 years of process know-how allow international customers to combine cost-effectiveness with sustainability to comply with stricter legislation and the sense of responsibility demanded by society and therefore take one step closer to a genuinely closed resource cycle and more environmentally-sound future.

⇥Stand: Halle 9 / B23