Recent Developments in Plastic-Plastic Separation Techniques

Plastic supply and recycling are increasingly becoming matters of social concern. In our country, Extended Producer Responsibility(EPR) system has been adopted in 2003 to expand recycle and reuse of waste resources at producer side, and due to expansion of the EPR system, amount of the mixed plastic waste generation has been drastically increased. Plastic-plastic separation is most fundamental technique to achieve effective plastic recycling. This paper reviews recent developments in plastic-plastic separation techniques and describe future tasks. The mechanisms of each separation which contain gravity separation, electrostatic separation, flotation, and separation of automotive shredder residue are described, and commercial scale and lab-scale results are introduced.