Turkish and Spanish companies are planning to develop equipment able to recycle printed and dyed plastic food containers. Led by Turkish plastics manufacturer Enplast Plastik Kimya Sanayi Ticaret, their researchers plan to use innovative high performance filters and coupling agents to separate coatings from plastic to create high value-added waste products.
Currently, plastic is a convenient and lightweight packaging option, but it is often non-recyclable when painted with information such as brand names and ingredients.
“In packaging, more than 55% of the film, sheets, thermoformed lids or injected containers are printed or decorated using organic basic inks,” according to a project memorandum from European Union research network Eureka.
Regrinding coated plastics can degrade materials and cause visible contamination when coatings remain, but removal is often too costly. Turkish and Spanish researchers are now trying to solve this problem. By optimising a paint-plastic separation system, products currently going to landfills could become ‘substitutes of virgin polymers at a reasonable price’.
Along with Enplast and Farplas Oto Yedek Parcalari Imalati in Turkey, three Spanish companies (Saymopack; Emsur Macdonell; and Acteco Productos Y Servicios) are planning to participate in the project. The research will cost €2.5 million over 30 months to July 2012. Spanish companies should fund 65% of research costs; Turkish participants 35%.
