The waste is the raw material of the XXI century

[GuyGadebois]

Scientists at the Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory Energy Department in northern California have designed a new generation of infinitely recyclable plastic.
https://www.forbes.fr/environnement/des ... a-linfini/

[moinsdewatt]

Who will recycle electric scooters, hoverboards and other gyropods?

BLUEBERRY DELAMARCHE Factory New on 14/10/2020

The devices of electric mobility - scooters, electric bikes and other hoverboards - interest several eco-organizations. By announcing on October 13 a project for a voluntary recycling channel for these fashionable objects, Screlec hopes to extend its field of action beyond batteries, batteries and printing cartridges. But he was beaten by a competitor ...

Eco-organisms are eyeing e-mobility or micro-mobility devices. Scooters, Segways, hoverboards, bicycles and even electric scooters have multiplied in the streets of cities, following strikes and, now, the Covid pandemic which keeps users of public transport away. Among the candidates for the management of their recycling, we find the structures responsible for the end of life of cells and batteries and those which treat electrical and electronic devices. All of these players are seeking to extend their field of action to this growing flow. A race where partnerships and competition mingle.

A new voluntary recycling channel

On October 13, Screlec announced at the same time as its 2019 report that it had collected, during one-off operations over the year 2020, 30 tonnes of these scooters and other bikes. The eco-organization has joined forces with the Federation of Micro-Mobility Professionals (FPMM) and Ecologic, one of the eco-organizations responsible for electrical and electronic waste, to design a collection and treatment process for these electric devices. At Ecologic the treatment of machines, at Screlec the treatment of batteries "in complete safety".

The issue of fire risk


Because the flammability of these batteries, especially lithium-ion, but also insulation foams and other electronic components such as capacitors has caused numerous fires and fires to start at recycling sites. Usually at the storage stage of fluxes which should not have contained batteries. Screlec highlights its experience in managing this risk, and saving actions, such as putting tape on button cells to prevent short circuits. Its containers, for transport and storage, are metal drums resistant to heating. And the eco-organization provides points of voluntary intake of vermiculite, an insulating mineral.

An evolving and poorly qualified resource

While it is difficult to assess today the source of these e-mobility devices, for lack of obligation to declare the placing on the market, this could evolve quickly with the promise of a change in regulations cells and batteries for these devices, as Screlec anticipates, to treat them as batteries of individual devices and not just industrial batteries, as currently provided for by European regulations. The objective is to increase, initially, to a collection of 50 tonnes, then to adapt to the volumes and the lifespan of the devices.

Corepile, first in electric bikes

Not to be outdone, the other cell and battery eco-organization Corepile had communicated in June 2020 on the results of its own voluntary sector, set up in 2017 with Union Sport et Cycle. In 2019, the latter collected 62,3 tonnes of used batteries (+ 59%), or nearly 25 batteries, via its collection network in cycle stores.

Screlec recognizes the precedence of its competitor over electric bikes, and reminds that each eco-organization is approached by its members (and funders via the eco-contribution) to offer solutions dedicated to their product families. These producers and distributors then choose to supplement the collection of the eco-organization they finance, since its ability to resell the extracted materials (around 70% in the case of these machines) depends on the balance of its accounts. , therefore the amount of their eco-contributions. Screlec now hopes to conquer a significant portion of the micro-mobility resource, if the renewal of its approval in 2021 goes as expected.

Especially since eco-organizations are not the only ones in contention. Veolia, through its Triade subsidiary, also announced at the end of 2019 a partnership with Jump (Uber) for the recycling of the brand's self-service scooters and bicycles.

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/q ... s.N1016049

[moinsdewatt]

Excellent article in capital.fr

Plastic: the recycling battle rages on.
JEAN BOTELLA 23/10/2020

It is an economic, ecological and social challenge: the recycling of plastic to give it a new life is still to be perfected, but technologies are refined.

Sacred Max. At the Paprec Trivalo factory in Chassieu, near Lyon, he is a real star. On this site of the French recycling leader, where 40.000 tonnes of household waste from selective collection in the metropolis are sorted each year, this American robot does wonders. First, it goes fast: its articulated arms fitted with suction cups perform 65 “gestures” per minute, when an experienced operator performs 35. Then, he reflects. Controlled by an artificial intelligence system, the machine with the gypsy blue body is able to precisely analyze all the objects conveyed by the conveyor at a speed of 1 meter per second. Max recovers everything that is valuable. And he directs the rest to a siding. His secret? A huge database. “To locate a bottle of Coke, he will refer to a source of 3.000 photographs of the object in all its forms. In France, it is the only robot of its kind, ”announces proudly Julien Lassaut, the director of the plant.

Clearly, sorting and recycling our waste is no easy task. These two branches of the circular economy which aim to reuse objects and materials require increasingly sophisticated technologies. And especially when it comes to plastic. In order to meet the needs of companies, which are increasingly encouraged to design recycled packaging, the manufacturers responsible for bringing these materials back to life are racing at speed. “In fifteen years, we have gone from a system where 90% of recoverable materials were separated by hand to another where 95% are separated by machines”, illustrates Stéphane Leterrier, deputy general manager of the Paprec group.

It must be said that, over the period, things got more complicated. When the selective collection was set up in 1992, the French were invited to throw only bottles and flasks in the bins provided for this purpose. But since 2015 and the start of the extension of sorting instructions, communities have gradually accepted all packaging in the bins. By 2022-2023, the entire population should be covered by this measure, which is aligned with European objectives: a plastic container recycling rate of 50% in 2025 and 55% in 2030 (90% for bottles). As France initially focused on bottles, it has fallen behind. France recycles 29% of its plastic packaging (which represents 2 million tonnes of waste per year), compared to 42% on average in the EU.

“The problem is that there is not one, but several families of plastic materials. Depending on their use, we cannot all mix them with recycling, ”explains Carlos de Los Llanos, scientific director of Citeo, the body responsible for overseeing the collection and sorting of packaging and paper in the region and then transforming them into new resources. Another subtlety, all plastics do not have the same processing capacities. “There is a technical solution for 50% of the packaging, a quarter is difficult to recycle, like the PET trays for fruit and vegetables, and another quarter has no processing sector; it is for example the complex packaging which mixes nylon, plastic and paper ”, continues Carlos de Los Llanos. These end up in the incinerator, or are buried. But go separate the wheat from the chaff!

It all starts with sorting, then. More or less easy upstream… depending on the civic spirit of citizens. In principle, 61% of curbside collection is made up of newspapers, magazines and cardboard boxes (called “fibrous”), 10% plastic, 7% steel and aluminum, 1% film. The rest ? These are the "refusals", these objects that have nothing to do in the yellow bin. “Last week, we recovered half of a windsurfing board and, during the hunting season, we already found a boar's head,” says Julien Lassaut, who is no longer surprised. The refusal rate can reach 30 to 35% among poor students (as in the greater Lyon area), against 15% among the most virtuous. The former often occupy vertical dwellings where it is often more difficult to sort and the latter, residential areas ...

In these conditions, a help from Max is never a refusal. He is not the only one, far from it, to watch over the selection of waste. In Chassieu, other sophisticated machines are used. The "windshifter", for example, a giant vacuum cleaner that captures the films used to wrap the water packs. Eddy currents, which eject aluminum instead of attracting it like a magnet. Or sophisticated optical sorters, very useful for identifying the various objects and resins in all their diversity. Sensors detect colors and materials, and are able to tell the difference between a tray of ham (complicated recycling) or cherry tomatoes (easier). They also scan and recognize shapes. This information triggers the operation of nozzles which blow a powerful jet of compressed air on the waste, adapted to its nature and its weight, to direct it in the appropriate direction. "The operators seek the greatest possible purity of the flows and our mission is to develop the technologies so that the detection of objects is even finer", explains Jean Henin, the boss of Pellenc ST, one of the rare world leaders in sorting. smart and connected for the recycling industry.

In any case, it does not drag on: five minutes after having been dumped on the carpets which parade in a deafening noise, scrutinized from all angles, the waste leaves the factory in the form of balls of 200 to 450 kilos. These are then transported to other units where a second phase of recycling is carried out: the transformation of plastic waste into flakes and granules. In Limay, in Yvelines, this is the specialty of France Plastiques Recyclage, a joint venture between Paprec and Suez. His particuliarity ? The use of advanced technologies to manufacture, from plastic bottles, r-PET (“r” for recycled), which giants like L'Oréal and Danone will use. "Recycled plastic suitable for food contact must meet high quality standards, it is necessary to use very advanced decontamination methods", underlines Sébastien Petithuguenin, CEO of Paprec.

In the previous phase, a lot of cleaning work has already been done. But in Limay, new sorting is carried out to eliminate labels, caps, metal residues… “We only want to keep PET,” insists Julien Seves, deputy head of the extrusion workshop. The bottles are crushed, transformed into flakes, which are washed to remove the last traces of glue or impurities, such as the remains of fruit juice. And it's not over: after rinsing and drying in hot air, the flakes are compressed in an extruder, transformed into paste and finally into granules, sold in “big bags” for 1.200 euros per tonne. "Question impurity, we are well below the threshold limits provided by the European and French health authorities", boasts Eric Labigne, the director of the site. To check the quality of the product and its compliance with customer expectations in terms of viscosity, laboratory assistants carry out around ten checks every day, ready to alert in the event of a deviation.


What will be the next technological feat? “Industrializing opaque PET involves many technical constraints, and recycling trays also remains difficult,” explains Eric Labigne. One of the avenues for the future mentioned by the experts is the switch to chemical recycling, which would make it possible to overcome the limits with which the mechanical method is confronted. "Plastic is a construction of chemistry that can also be deconstructed by chemistry", underlines the scientific director of Citeo. The method involves breaking down the material to recover the polymers and from there to produce new, higher quality plastics. "It is a technology which would accept resin mixtures, it interests everyone but is not yet industrialized because of its cost", explains Carlos de Los Llanos. While waiting for the advent of this revolution, continue to sort: there will always be something left.

https://www.capital.fr/entreprises-marc ... ge-1384029

Personally, the mixed paper and plastic packaging stuck together I do not put them in recycling and the article proves me right.

[moinsdewatt]

Total's solution for recycling Yoplait yoghurt pots

HUBERT MARY New Factory 07/12/2020

GOOD NEWS Total announces that it has successfully conducted tests to use chemically recycled polystyrene to produce yoghurt pots. The French dairy giant Yoplait is a partner in the project.


otal has partnered with Yoplait to develop a process to use chemically recycled polystyrene (rPS) to produce the dairy brand yogurt pots. On Monday, December 7, the French hydrocarbon giant announced its first success, thanks to the support of a Portuguese SME, Intraplás, an expert in the extrusion of plastic sheets.

Total produces recycled polystyrene, Intraplás transforms it, Yoplait makes yogurt pots

Total began by collecting plastics from post-consumer plastic waste, before processing them in its steam cracker (a petrochemical process that consists of obtaining a better valued complex plastic), located in its factory in Antwerp (Belgium) and transform into certified chemically recycled polystyrene. "RPS has qualities identical to that of virgin polystyrene and is particularly suitable for food contact intended for players in the agri-food packaging", indicates the French group.

The material was then shipped to Portugal, to the Intraplás factories in Rebordões. The Iberian SME converted the rPS into dairy plastic sheets, before sending them back to the Yoplait factory in Vienne (New Aquitaine). The brand was thus able to produce its first yoghurt pots in entirely recycled polystyrene. "This is a major step forward in building (...) a circular polystyrene economy in France, and thus contributing to the achievement of our ambition to reach 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025", said Frédéric Chapuis. , Sustainable Packaging Strategy Manager at Yoplait.

Total announces the construction of the first chemical recycling plant in Grandpuits

On December 24, the champion of fossil fuels, which aims for carbon neutrality in 2050, announced the conversion of its Grandpuits (Seine-et-Marne) refinery into a "zero oil" platform, producing both agrofuels and bioplastics, as well as recycled plastic. An investment of more than 500 million euros, which will be carried out in two stages. The shutdown, in the first quarter of 2021, of petroleum refining activities at Grandpuits and, from 2023, of the storage of petroleum products at Gargenville (Yvelines).

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial ... t.N1037394

[moinsdewatt]

AMP Robotics looks to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence in sorting
T
Kirstin Linnenkoper - March 4, 2021

US recycling technology company AMP Robotics Corp. has launched a second pilot to advance robotic sorting systems. The Denver-based artificial intelligence sorting specialist says the solution tackles 'difficult-to-recycle' scrap, like co-mingled plastics, paper and metals.


AMP robots are average 80 picks per minute, which is twice as fast as humans.

see 2 minutes of video of this company and sorting machines in action:

[moinsdewatt]

A new battery recycling plant in UK.
treatment capacity of 25 tonnes per year.

WasteCare invests in UK battery recycling hub

Batteries, E-scrap - Kirstin Linnenkoper - January 19, 2021



The EUR 2.2 million facility in Elland, West Yorkshire can handle 25 tonnes of household batteries per year. The site is fully automated and will process mixed consumer batteries from collection points across England, Scotland and Wales.

This means it can recycle 100% of the UK's spent alkaline and zinc carbon batteries, allowing them to be treated domestically rather than being exported. WasteCare estimates that alkaline and zinc carbon batteries account for approximately 80% of those sold in the UK.

The recycler anticipates great results from an innovative sorting process that first separates batteries by size and type. They then enter a processing unit that boasts specially designed filtration and environmental monitoring systems. The batteries are pulverized before moving on to a multi-staged separation and extraction process. WasteCare says this allows the component materials to be separated and reused by manufacturers as secondary raw materials.

Company coo Graeme Parkin says he is proud to have delivered a world-class facility. 'It represents the first phase of our ambitious investment program to develop UK-based recycling solutions for other battery chemistries to meet the projected demand in the UK. We are already at an advanced stage in developing a downstream process that will allow raw materials to be reused directly in battery manufacturing and this plant should be operational towards the end of 2021. '

Parkin claims WasteCare has played an integral part in increasing the UK's consumer battery collection rate from 3% to 45% over the past decade. The company has become one of the UK's largest collectors of household batteries making more than 50 collections per annum from major retailers, businesses and schools.

https://recyclinginternational.com/batt ... hub/32540/

they are 67 million inhabitants in UK the 25 tons are therefore 000 kg of battery per inhabitant and per year.
This factory therefore seems to me capable of handling all end-of-life batteries in the UK.
Personally I do not use as much annually.