WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

AVEYRON (FRANCE)
Since 1999, a collection scheme for the agricultural plastic films has operated in the
Department of Aveyron (South of France).
The General Council of the Aveyron initiated a convention between the different actors:
SOPAVE and the Local Agricultural Syndicate. The Syndicate is responsible for coordinating
collection, while SOPAVE undertakes to receive and recycle collected films. Initially planned
for three years, the scheme has been extended to run throughout the fourth year (2002),
with a renegotiation due.
The collection is organised twice a year - in April and October - during two or three weeks.
The collection point may be a public or a private place (e.g. a farmyard). Plastic films are
unloaded on a platform, then loaded onto a container with compaction, in order to reduce
the volume for transportation.
As the collection scheme is not economically self-sufficient, the General Council gives a
grant of 38/t collected films. This grant is paid directly to SOPAVE, which organises
transportation, on the basis of the collected quantities.

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WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

CHAPTER 6
How can local/regional authorities improve sorting
and related activities?
Sorting activities
Waste plastics that arrive at a sorting facility originate from a number of
different collection schemes (kerbside collection, neighbourhood containers
and container parks) and waste streams (household, construction and
demolition, industrial, commercial and agricultural).
The quality, quantity and the size of the collected waste plastics is variable and
dependant on the collection scheme. Kerbside collection schemes and
neighbourhood containers typically collect small waste plastics (generally
plastic bottles), while the plastics collected in the containers parks are usually
larger plastic items, such as pipes, windows, etc.
In general, the quality of the sorted materials will determine its price: a clean
material (mono-material, mono-colour, low impurities) will be more valuable
than a bad sorted material (multi-material, multi-coloured, with a high level
of impurities). However, the responsible of the sorting facility must check with
the buyer of the sorted materials what the quality requirements are, the
required quantities, frequency of supply and what price each material, dependant on its quality will
demand. A balance must be established between the additional effort and cost involved in sorting the
material and the potential increase in value for a cleaner material.
Waste plastics sorting activities can be separated into two main categories; the sorting of small
pieces like bottles and other household packaging, and the sorting of the bulky items, like pipes and
films.
Small waste plastics
Small waste plastics fractions are usually packaging products collected with other materials (multimaterial collections). However, in Italy schemes do exist that solely collect plastic bottles. A typical
sorting chain for the mixed packaging waste has the following lay-out:
Unloading of the collection trucks on a provisional stocking area => alimentation of
conveyor with a loader => separation of the different fraction: metallic fraction (magnetic
and Foucault current separators), light fraction (air classification), size separation (trommel
and vibrating table), hand sorting on belt conveyors => baling => stocking
The sequence of the material separation varies from one sorting plant to another; some plants have
equipment additional to those described above, whilst others do not. For more information on
multi-material sorting plants, the report Guide du centre de tri des dchets recyclables by the
Centre National du Recyclage (2002) is recommended.

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