Recovery of plastics from household waste by mechanical separation

Plastic packaging in the waste of private households used to be incinerated until the end of 2008 in the Netherlands. In January 2009, a source separation system for plastic packaging waste (PPW) was established to reduce the amount of residual waste and secure access to secondary resources. Between 2009 and begin of 2011 three mechanical-biological treatment plants started to recover PPW from municipal solid refuse waste of some municipalities. The recovered plastic packaging is fed into different material recycling processes depending on the polymer type. Therefore, two different waste management systems are available for PPW in the Netherlands: the source separation system (NL: bronscheiding) and the recovery system (NL: nascheiding). It is necessary to describe each system’s cost efficiency and waste reduction potential to reach the rising recycling targets; in 2012, 42 % of the PPW are to be recycled. Due to the rapid development of the recycling business there is a lack of data which could be used to achieve the above mentioned goal.