NIR technique The near-infrared (NIR) technique separates used plastic packaging into different types of plastic. This improves the quality of the starting materials for recycled products. Photo courtesy of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kunststoff-Recycling mbH

July 4, 2004 - - SEATTLE, WA (USA) --
PET recycling - The Future Has Begun

All over the world, drink bottles manufactured from Polyethylene-Terephthalate (PET) are conquering the market. Not only lighter than glass, they are also stable and breakproof - and these are the properties that consumers want.

According to the latest data from the GfK, 68.4 percent of all cola drinks, 45 percent of all lemonade and 12.9 percent of all mineral water are filled into PET bottles in Germany alone.

The rapid rise of PET as a packaging material also constitutes a new challenge for the recycling branch. To this end, the DKR has set up a separate recycling channel for the high-grade plastic from yellow bags and bins.

In the future, PET will be available in practically homogeneous form in a clear and a coloured fraction. The aim is to manufacture high-quality products, such as new drink bottles or textile fibres, from recycled PET - an important step towards improving quality and lowering costs in the plastics recycling sector.

Successful separation with the near-infrared technology. Making new products from "old" PET ones is only ecologically and economically sound if the plastic collected by the Dual System can be recovered in almost homogeneous form.

The key to this is optical separation with the aid of the near-infrared (NIR) technology. In this process, the different plastics are exposed to a beam of light which is reflected differently by the various kinds of plastic. This reflection allows the computer to identify the individual materials and to control their automatic, homogeneous separation.

Contact: Deutsche (GfK) - Gesellschaft für Kunststoff-Recycling mbH (DKR) Internet: www.dkr.de E-Mail: info@dkr.de

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