A tractor driving up and down rows of trees in a US orchard is delivering vital information for the farmer. Well before the apples and pears are harvested, she knows exactly how much fruit she will be taking to market. That’s because the tractor has on-board cameras linked to a computer that logs every single fruit and also calculates how many are out of sight. It’s a practical and cost-effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the UK scientists responsible for this technical advance are also helping plastics recyclers to become more profitable.
They work for Technology Research Centre (TRC), based on a former Royal Air Force base in Lincolnshire. Their home is a restored control tower that once used to make sure planes take off and land safely. Now they are helping clients to take off by developing new opportunities or finding solutions to market threats. Years of research and development have created high performance packaging with complexities that pose real challenges for recyclers. The RPC pilot is an innovative, separation technique to achieve full recovery of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate and aluminium from multi-layered post-consumer packaging waste (including film, semi-rigid trays, cups and tubs).
The partners are confident this will lead to the processing of 15 000 tonnes a year by 2020. The concept was originally proved by TRC a couple of years ago and the current partnership scales up the idea. The real challenge over recycling multi-layered plastic and metal packaging is its complexity. Contaminated post-consumer packaging makes the task of recycling even harder. Most therefore goes to landfill or incineration, although some businesses have sprung up processing valuable aluminium from the packaging by pyrolysis, separating the materials by turning the plastic into gas. The RPC-TRC pilot is different because it recovers all the materials in virtually the same state. Andy Watts, RPC’s commercial development manager, insists it is not a version of pyrolysis.
Source: Recycling International
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