Group 1

Most effective sorting techniques

Most effective sorting techniques
Macro-separation
Sorting by physical properties and characteristics
Pros:
Easy to perform by hand
Simple technology: IR, fluorescence, doesn’t
require extensive chemical or mechanical
processing
Can be automated
Cons:
Expensive, and sorting by hand is tedious
and ineffective in some cases (requires
training of workers)
Requires even spatial distribution of objects
on the conveyor belt (difficult to do)
Automating by shape or colour could be
inconsistent and could miss plastic products
that should be grouped together.
Chemical Dissolution
Selectively dissolve different polymers or dissolve
all polymers, and selectively precipitate
Pros:
- very pure separation possible,
contaminants and additives filtered out
- Results in a high purity and is a
fast method
Cons:
- toxicity means expensive and
complicated measures to ensure health
- solvent handling required,
flammability/explosion
- high energy cost to evaporate
solvent
- Hard to conduct on a larger-scale
- Need to have an idea of what
components are in the plastic
- Solvents can be toxic which is bad
for health
Wash/Float
Liquid-based density sorting
Pros:
- Very easy method
- Effective against plastics with a
large different in densities
Cons:
- Only works for materials with
significantly differing densities(i.e
cannot use this method to
separate PE and PP as they have
the same density).
- Required chopping plastics into
approximately 2cm chips.
- Needs equally shaped particles
otherwise separation is affected.
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