Mwaves for plastic

“MWAVES for plastic” is a Research and Development project aimed at identifying and differentiating plastics correctly.

 

 

TARGET OF THE RESEARCH

Plastics are amongst one of the major themes discussed within the topic of sustainability. Due to the huge production scale and wide range of applications, eliminating plastic completely is out of the question. Recycling is one of the most common ways to reduce the impact on the environment but there are two drawbacks:

1. The difficulty of using recycled/regenerated plastic in the production process where the level of purity of the raw material is one of the essential requirements for reintroducing the material into the production process. A mix of plastics that is not pure or clean cannot be regenerated;
2. The difficulty of finding a solution that can separate waste that is clean and homogenous.

In addition, the recycled waste includes various types of plastic (PET, PVC, PS, EPS, etc.), that are not separated due to cultural (little known) and management difficulties.

The aim of the project is to design a sensor that is able to distinguish one type of plastic from the other, and which would permit, by means of mechanical selectors, to group the plastics by type. In this way, the plastic flakes, depending on the type, would be treated with chemicals and transformed once again into extremely pure extruded pieces and rods, compatible with a circular economy market.