SINTEF develops cost effective recycling system

Although many things can be recycled or reused, it is a major challenge to sort this rubbish. It is expensive and complicated, because it is not easy to see which plastic type makes up the bottle, cup or can.

If the plastic is to be reused, different types cannot be mixed.

But SINTEF believes a little, gold-covered plastic chip - as easy to produce as a CD - can manage this work. The surface is holographic, reflecting light in a carefully programmed way.

With the help of new software that interprets the spectrum of light reflected from or passing through different materials, each material's 'fingerprint' is read very accurately - whether solid material or even gas.

"We are now able to produce this chip and associated electronics for well under 1,000 NOK (€120),"​ said Tomra research manager Andreas Nordbryhn.

According to an EU directive, 50 per cent of all metals must be recycled by 2008, and there are financial incentives for companies to meet their targets. On top of this, growing consumer and retail awareness means that environmentally-friendly packaging materials are achieving an increasingly high profile.

Steel recycling is a complicated business. Each Member State government must decide how best to achieve this overall target of 50 per cent, and in the UK, it was decided to set the target for steel at 54 per cent and the target for aluminium at 34 per cent, partly due to the fact that steel is easier to sort and recycle because of its magnetic properties.

In addition each company has its own quantified targets to meet, which brings with it additional pressure.

The first SINTEF​ prototype is already mounted at the British supermarket chain Tesco. It is a complete recycling station that sorts and shreds packaging the public inserts. The new, more advanced stations that are now in production will be able to separate between seven different types of plastic that will fall into their own containers after being shredded.

Glass will be sorted after colour, then broken and disturbed in containers. The same for metal - iron/steel will be sorted from aluminium.

"Because the machine sorts and shreds the packaging material, the need for storage area and transport are reduced. This gives a large environmental gain as well as a better economy. The solution we can now present for the market is the cheapest and best in the world,"​ said Nordbryhn.

Furthermore, the company has access to technology that makes it possible to produce an inexpensive, precise gas detector, for, among other things, CO2.

"The project has been remarkably successful,"​ said Nordbryhn. "We have long wanted to expand our activities to include rubbish handling.​

"The deposit market is limited - for example, only about 15 per cent of all bottles consumed annually around the world have a deposit. And 85 per cent of the bottles and most of the other packaging are only rubbish.​

"All countries have large problems with the handling an enormous mountain of rubbish, not the least of which is packaging that modern society produces. There is close to an unlimited market for solutions to handle the challenge in a rational way. Increasingly, different countries' authorities are adding fees for those who cannot document that their packaging is recyclable."​

Steel packaging recycling in Europe increased by 1.3 per cent last year to reach just over 2.1 million tonnes, and the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL) claims that the figures confirm steel's leading position in packaging recycling. May estimates that at present, 46 per cent of steel in the UK is recycled, although this is higher in other countries.

Current indicators suggest that recycling will continue to grow. APEAL estimates that, by the end of 2008, the recycling of steel packaging in the EU15 should near 70 per cent, with an average annual growth of 3.4 per cent.