Techniques for separation of

plastic wastes 2
Silvia Serranti, Giuseppe Bonifazi
Department of Chemical Engineering, Materials & Environment, Sapienza University of
Rome, Rome, Italy

2.1 Introduction
Mechanical recycling, which is the processing of waste by physical means, represents
the main approach to follow in order to recover plastics. This process typically
includes different actions, such as collection, screening, manual and/or automatic
sorting, size reduction, washing, extrusion, and granulation that may occur in different
sequences and more than one at a time, according to the characteristics of the feed plas-
tic waste, in terms of origin, size, shape, and composition (Hopewell et al., 2009;
Ragaert et al., 2017).
Foundation of each mechanical process, finalized to separate a specific material
inside a flow stream containing other materials also, is to know the different properties
of the target material, with respect to the actions to be applied (i.e., comminution,
classification, separation). Important material properties useful to select the best
separation strategies for segregation of plastic waste include: particle size, class
distribution, density, magnetic and electric properties, color, shape, etc. Density
usually represents one of the most utilized properties to perform material separation.
Unfortunately, some polymers are characterized by very close values of density
(Al-Salem et al., 2009); in these cases this property cannot be successfully utilized,
especially to obtain high-quality single polymer streams.
The need of powerful technologies to perform plastic waste separation, being at the
same time cost-effective and able to guarantee high quality of products in terms of pu-
rity is more and more stringent in order to produce secondary plastics that are compet-
itive in the market in comparison with the virgin polymers. In fact, the actual economic
and environmental constraints dramatically increase the interest of many players (i.e.,
industries, recyclers, technology developers, engineers, etc.) both in waste-sorting
technologies, for the production of high-quality secondary polymers, and in devel-
oping automatic sensors for quality assessment of waste-derived secondary polymers.
On December 2015 plastic was in fact identified by the European Commission as a key
priority in the “EU Action Plan for a circular economy” (COM, 2015) and in January
2018 a “European strategy for plastics in a circular economy” (COM, 2018) was
adopted in order to use such a resource in a more sustainable way, including measures
for the improvement in plastic sorting and recycling capacity and in quality of recycled
plastics.

Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102676-2.00002-5

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
10 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

A mechanical process aimed to perform plastic waste recycling is based on the uti-
lization of fast, accurate, and reliable tools and equipment specifically addressed to
separate and recover single polymer streams, eliminating polluting elements (i.e., other
polymers or other materials) present in the feed. As already stated, recycling plant
layout has to be developed and managed taking into account the different polymers
in the feed as well as the presence of other materials, both aspects in relation to the
plastic waste sources (Ignatyev et al., 2014), that is: virgin and used ones. The
polymer-based products that belong to the first source class (i.e., virgin waste) never
reached the consumer (i.e., runners from injection molding, waste from production,
changeovers, fall-out products, cuttings, and trimmings). These start-of-life plastic
wastes are usually uncontaminated both from other polymers and/or nonpolymers.
Obviously, they represent the higher-quality grades of polymer waste. End-of-life plas-
tic wastes belong to the second source class (i.e., postconsumer waste). These latter can
strongly vary both in quantity and in quality according to the collecting source and/or
the adopted collecting strategies.
Mechanical recycling can be applied to plastic waste sorting following two different
approaches, that is, at macro- or microscale.
Plastic macrosorting is usually performed when the waste flow stream contains the
polymers to be recovered as macroobjects easy to be identified and separated. In this
case, any specific mechanical action (i.e., size reduction/screening) has to be prelimi-
nary applied and waste plastics, usually bottles and containers, are separated. Specific
polymer attributes are first detected by specialized sensing devices and according to
their characteristics further separated, usually following air-blowebased strategies.
Manual separation strategies are also applied and human knowledge is at the base
of the separation, It is a labor-intensive, costly, and inefficient option, even if today
plastic containers are labeled according to the constituting polymer and/or blend of
polymers.
Plastic microsorting is usually applied when waste plastics are recovered as flakes,
that is, individuals resulting from milling actions, inside a flow stream of mixed waste
characterized by different physical chemical attributes. In this case, handling costs
decrease and the quantity of waste strongly increases, but more complex, and often
also sophisticated technologies have to be designed, implemented, set up, and applied.
These technologies (e.g., size reduction, screening, separation, etc.) are usually
sequentially applied. In the latter case, sorting units and related logics, both addressed
to separation and/or recovered polymer flow stream quality assessment play a preem-
inent role.

2.2 Plastic waste sources and typologies

2.2.1 Production of plastic waste
Over the last 50 years the role and importance of plastics in our economy have grown
steadily. World plastic production has increased twentyfold compared to the 1960s
reaching 335 million tonnes in 2016 (Plastics the Facts, 2017), and should double
in the next 20 years. In the EU, plastic production reached 60 million tonnes in
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 11

2016. The largest plastic producers are China (29%), followed by Europe (19%) and
NAFTA (18%).
Despite the global increase in plastic production, the potential for recycling plastic
waste is still largely unexploited. The reuse and recycling of plastic at the end of life
are very low, especially compared to other materials such as paper, glass, and metal.
The European plastics converter demand by segment in 2016 is reported in Fig. 2.1,
showing that the packaging sector accounts for 39.9%, followed by building and con-
struction (19.7%); automotive (10%); electrical and electronic equipment (6.2%);
household, leisure, and sports (4.2%), agriculture (3.3%). Other sectors, including ap-
pliances, mechanical engineering, furniture, medical, etc., account for the remaining
16.7% (Plastics The Facts, 2017).
In Fig. 2.2 the European distribution of plastic waste generation by segment in 2015
is reported. It is evident that the main source of plastic waste is packaging, accounting
for 59% of the total plastic waste. It can be noticed that from production to waste,
different plastic products are characterized by different life cycles, depending on their
use, for example, plastic packaging has a service life of less than 1 year, plastic for in-
dustrial equipment can have a service life of 40 years or more. That is the reason why
the volume of collected plastic waste in 1 year usually does not match the volume of
plastic production.
About 27.1 million tonnes of plastic waste were collected in Europe in 2016
(Plastics The Facts, 2017), of which 31.1% was collected for recycling, 41.6% for
energy recovery and 27.3% still went to landfill. Even if the percentage of recycled
plastics is quite low, a positive aspect is that in the past 10 years (from 2006 to
2016) plastic waste recycling has increased by 79% and landfill has decreased by
43%. Unfortunately, even if the EU situation is improving, in many countries landfill
is still the first or second option for plastic waste.
Concerning plastic packaging waste treatment, in 2016 recycling was the first
option accounting for 40.9%, followed by energy recovery (38.8%) and landfill
(20.3%).

Plastic demand by different market sectors (%)

Packaging 39.90%

Building &
construction 19.70%

Automotive 10.00%

Electrical & electronic

6.20%

Household, leisure &

sports 4.20%

Agriculture 3.30%

Others 16.70%

Figure 2.1 Plastic demand by different market sectors in 2016.

Plastics The Facts, 2017.
12 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

EU plastic waste generation (%)

Others 14.00%

Agriculture 5.00%

Non packaging
household 4.00%

Electrical & electronic

8.00%

Packaging 59.00%
Automotive 5.00%

Building & construction

5.00%

Figure 2.2 EU plastic waste generation in 2015.

COM, 2018. A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy. p. 28.

It was estimated that plastic production and the incineration of plastic waste
generate a total of about 400 million tonnes of CO2 per year (Ellen MacArthur
Foundation, 2016). Increased use of recycled plastics can reduce dependence on fossil
fuel extraction for plastic production and contain CO2 emissions. According to esti-
mates (Rahimi and García, 2017), recycling of plastic waste from around the world
could result in annual energy savings of 3.5 billion barrels of oil.
Alternative types of raw materials are also being developed (for example, bio-based
plastics or plastics produced from carbon dioxide or methane), which offer the same
functionalities of traditional plastics with a potentially lower environmental impact,
but currently represent a very small slice of the market.
Very large quantities of plastic waste, generated both on land and at sea, are
dispersed in the environment, causing considerable economic and environmental dam-
age. Worldwide, between 5 and 13 million tonnes of plastics end up in the oceans each
year, representing between 1.5% and 4% of the world production of this material
(Jambeck et al., 2015). Plastic is estimated to account for over 80% of marine litter.
The plastic residues are transported by sea currents, sometimes even for very long dis-
tances, and can be deposited on land, break up into microplastics, or form dense areas
trapped in oceanic gyres.
The phenomenon is accentuated by the increasing amount of plastic waste gener-
ated every year, also due to the growing diffusion of “single-use” plastic products,
for example, packaging or other consumer products thrown away after only one short
use, rarely recycled, and subject to being dispersed in the environment. These products
include small packaging, bags, disposable cups, lids, straws, and cutlery, in which the
plastic is widely used for its lightness, low costs, and practical features.
New sources of plastic dispersion are also increasing, generating further potential
risks to the environment and human health. Microplastics, defined as tiny plastic frag-
ments smaller than 5 mm, accumulate in the sea, where, due to their small size, they
can be easily ingested by marine fauna, and can also enter the food chain. Recent
studies have found the presence of microplastics in the air, in drinking water, and in
foods, and their impact on human health is still unknown.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 13

Furthermore, the increase in the market share of plastics with biodegradable prop-
erties creates new opportunities but also generates risks. In the absence of a clear
labeling for consumers and without proper collection and processing of waste, it could
lead to an increase in the dispersion of plastics and create problems for mechanical
recycling. On the other hand, biodegradable plastics can certainly be useful for
some applications and innovation in this sector is welcomed.

2.2.2 Typologies of polymers, characteristics, and uses

The term “plastic” is derived from the Greek word “plastikos,” meaning fit for
moulding. This refers to the material’s malleability or plasticity during manufacture,
which allows it to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapesdsuch as films,
fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more. There are two categories of plas-
tics: thermoplastics and thermosets. Thermoplastics can be melted when heated and
hardened when cooled, the process is reversible. Due to their characteristics, they
can be reheated, reshaped, and frozen many times Thermoplastics include polyeth-
ylene terephthalate (PET), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride
(PVC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene
(PS) among others. On the contrary, thermosets undergo a chemical change when heat-
ed, so they cannot be remelted and reshaped. Thermosets are widely used in electronics
and automotive products. Thermoset plastics include epoxy, polyester, melamine,
phenol formaldehyde, vulcanized rubber, silicone, polyurethane (PUR), etc.
Each plastic is identified by a resin code that was introduced to facilitate recycling
operations (ASTM, 2014). In Table 2.1 a list of the main plastic types, with their
typical applications, is reported.
The most diffused polymers, according to plastic converter demand, are (Fig. 2.3):
PP, LDPE, HDPE, PVC, PUR, PET, and PS. Such polymers are also the most abun-
dant in plastic waste with some variations according to different lifespan of products.
Polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) is the most abundant polymer in plastic waste, due to
their dominance in packaging applications, followed by PP, forming together the
polyolefin family, accounting for 56.1% of plastic production demand. Other poly-
mers, accounting for 19.3% of the total, are mainly represented by acrylonitrile buta-
diene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA),
polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), utilized in many
different fields, such as medical, electronics, aerospace, etc.

2.3 The plastic recycling chain

The plastic recycling chain can be divided in the following operations:

Manual Material/ Size Extrusion &

Collection sorting Screening polymer reduction Washing granulation
sorting
14 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

Table 2.1 Main plastic types and their typical applications

Resin
code Polymer name Applications

Polyethylene Terephthalate Drink bottles, detergent bottles, clear

film for packaging, food trays,
carpet fibers
High-Density Polyethylene Detergent bottles, mobile components,
agricultural pipes, pallets, toys

Polyvinyl Chloride Packaging for food, medical materials,

Low-Density Polyethylene
Polypropylene
Polystyrene
Other. Use of this code indicates that a
package is made with a resin other
than the six listed above, or is made
of more than one resin and used in a
multilayer combination.
pipes, window frames, cable
insulation
Foil and films for dry cleaning, bread,
frozen food, fresh produce and
household garbage, toys, squeezable
bottles
Containers for food, medicine bottles,
bottle caps, bins, automobile
applications
Disposable cutlery, cups and plates,
meat trays, protective packaging for
furniture, electronic items and toys
Other packaging

European plastics demand by polymer types

19.3% 19.3%
17.5%

12.3%
10.0%

7.4% 7.5%
6.7%

PS PET PUR PVC HDPE LDPE PP Others

Figure 2.3 European plastics converter demand by polymer types in 2016.

Plastics The Facts, 2017.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 15

Each step of the chain affects the others. For example, the selection of the sorting
technology will depend on the characteristics of collected plastic waste (types,
composition, etc.) and the final destination of the recovered product will depend
on its quality.
Collection is carried out adopting different systems, depending also on the different
sources, such as plastics from household waste and from industrial waste. Collection
can be, for example, monomaterial, if plastic is collected as source-separated fraction,
or multimaterial, if plastic is collected with other packaging materials (aluminum,
glass, etc.).
Manual sorting is usually necessary at the beginning of the recycling process for the
preliminary removal of films, cardboard, and bulky items and is usually carried out by
operators checking the waste stream on the conveyor belt.
Screening is applied to remove small objects such as glass and stones. Typical
screening equipment are drum or vibrating screens. Usually waste is divided into three
fractions: undersize (<50 mm), middle size (from 50 to 300 mm), and oversize
(>300 mm). Usually plastic is concentrated in the middle size fraction.
Material/Polymer Sorting has the aim to obtain high-quality recycled plastic
products, preferably single polymer stream. Sorting technologies are based on
different physical-chemical properties of waste materials, such as shape, density,
size, color, or chemical composition of objects. Material sorting consists in the
removal of the unwanted contaminants such as pieces of metals, glass, paper, etc.,
from the plastic waste stream. Polymer sorting is applied to separate polymers by
type; this step is of paramount importance in order to obtain high-quality single
polymer stream. The different plastic waste separation technologies are described
in Section 2.4.
Size reduction is usually carried out by shredding or cutting techniques; such oper-
ations can be present before or after the sorting step, depending on the plant layout and
on the typology of plastic waste stream. Plastics are usually shredded in flakes having a
size of 5e10 mm.
Extrusion and granulation: this step is necessary to produce a granulate which is
easier to use for converters than flakes. The polymer flakes are fed into the extruder,
are heated, and then forced through a die to form a continuous polymer product
(strand) which can then be cooled in a water bath before being pelletized. The granu-
lation process is used to reduce the strands to pellets which can then be used for the
manufacture of new products.

2.4 Plastic waste separation technologies

Plastic waste separation has the main aim to remove unwanted contaminants (such as
metals, glass, etc.) and to obtain high purity polymers. In the following sections the
different separation technologies usually adopted in plastic recycling plants are
described. The choice of the technology (or combination of more than one technology)
will depend on the feed characteristics and on the quality requirements for the output
products, for example, single polymer stream or mixed polymer stream.
16 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

2.4.1 Gravity separation

2.4.1.1 Dry
Air classifier
Air classifiers use air as the medium to separate lighter materials from heavier ones.
The waste stream enters the column with a raising current of air and lighter objects
are blown upward whereas heavier ones are dropped down (Fig. 2.4). Air classifiers
are usually utilized to remove light contaminants such as dust, small foam particles,
paper, glass powders, and polymer foils from the main plastic waste stream. To reach
this goal, aspirators, wind sifters of air-cyclonesebased techniques are utilized. The
separation occurs based on the different behavior of particles when subjected to a
stream of air. Even if the separation principle is quite simple, air-based classification
has to take into account different parameters (i.e., particle density, morphological
and morphometrical characteristics) that interact with single polymer terminal veloc-
ity, thus affecting separation efficiency and corresponding operative setup (Shapiro
and Galperin, 2005). Air classifiers can be utilized after a gravity separation step or
at the beginning of the process before or after a preliminary comminution stage, to
properly handle/separate complex plastic-rich parts from end-of-life durables (e.g.,
automotive-derived parts, electrical and electronic devices, appliances, etc.).

Ballistic separator
Ballistic separation is based on a simple principle, that is, the different movement char-
acteristics of particles of different size, shape, and weight, spatially defined as 2D or
3D structures (Christensen and Fruergaard, 2011). Ballistic separation can be success-
fully utilized both for mixed waste containing plastics and for plastic waste streams. In
the first case, film, paper, cardboard, textiles, and fibrous materials can be assigned to a
2D flat and light class of products; on the contrary, plastic containers, bottles, stone,

Light

Feed
Air stream

Heavy
Figure 2.4 Schematic representation of an air classifier.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 17

wood, cans, and ferrous materials can be assigned to a 3D class of rolling and heavy
products. In the second case, films and flakes belong to 2D individual domains; on the
contrary, containers and/or crumpled containers belong to 3D individual domains. In
both cases separation occurs thanks to the utilization of a so-called ballistic separator,
or ballistic screen. Such a device is usually constituted by a series of screening paddles,
or perforated plates, whose number, size, and shape profile can vary according to the
feed rate and physical characteristics of the waste materials, affected by an orbital
motion and characterized by an inclined position, usually ranging from 10 degrees
to 20 degrees. The materials fed to this separator, according to their 2D or 3D structure
and physical characteristics (i.e., weight, morphological and morphometrical charac-
teristics) follow different trajectories with respect to the orbital blades movement.
The 2D and light materials are conveyed to the upper part of the ballistic separator,
whereas 3D, heavier, and “rolling” individuals move toward the lower part of the sepa-
rator. The continuous shaking of the waste produces also a screening effect: particles
characterized by a size smaller than the distance between the different screening pad-
dles pass through, generating a third flow stream.

2.4.1.2 Wet
Sink-float separation
Sink-float separation processes are based on the utilization of the different density
properties of materials. Separation is based on the fact that when materials are intro-
duced in a tank containing a fluid of a specific density, lighter materials will float
and heavier ones will sink (Fig. 2.5). A sink-float separation unit is efficient when
materials are characterized by quite different density values (Callister and Rethwisch,
2010). Therefore this method can be used to separate plastics from heavier materials,
or polymers characterized by different densities (i.e., PET from PP/PE or ABS from

Floating plastic flakes

Sinking plastic flakes

PP, HDPE, LDPE

Float PVC, PET, ABS

plastics with
specific gravity < 1 g/cm3
Water
Sink specific gravity =
plastics with 1 g/cm3
specific gravity < 1 g/cm3

Figure 2.5 Sink-float separation.

18 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

PS), whereas it cannot be utilized for separation of polymers characterized by quite

close density values, as for example polyolefins (PP, LDPE, HDPE). Presence of con-
taminants, air bubbles on polymer surface, polymer alteration, fillers, and additives can
affect separation efficiency.

Jigging
Jigging is one of the oldest methods of gravity concentration (Hori et al., 2009).
Jigging can be defined as an “enhanced gravity based separation” method: a water
stream is pulsed, or moved by pistons upward and downward, through the material
bed. Individuals are separated according to their densities, but also thanks to the sys-
tematic and repetitive applied pulsation, whose frequency and amplitude is strictly
related to physical, morphological, and morphometrical attributes of materials. With
reference to plastic waste, this procedure is quite efficient in many cases, allowing
to enhance polymer separation with respect to their relatively low density differences.
Thanks to the repetitions of these actions, particles stratify, across the bed height, ac-
cording to their specific density: the heaviest form the lowest layer and the lightest
constitute the highest.

Hydrocycloning
Hydrocycloning is a density sorting technology based on the centrifugal/centripetal
forces and fluid resistance of different particles having different characteristics
(Bradley, 1965).
A slurry is usually fed to the cyclone. A selected solid/liquid ratio and operative
pressure is adopted. As a result, the fluid pressure transfer produces, inside the device,
a rotational fluid motion, thus permitting separation among the different materials (i.e.,
polymer-contaminant or polymer-polymer characterized by different densities).
Lighter fractions will be transported to the upper part of the cyclone, the heavier
ones to the bottom (Fig. 2.6).

Light plastics
stream

Plastic waste
feed

Heavy plastics
stream
Figure 2.6 Plastic hydrocyclone separator.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 19

Materials have to be properly milled before hydrocyclone-based sorting. The sep-

aration mechanism can be synthetically summarized as follows. The slurry is tangen-
tially fed to the inlet, causing the material to rotate within the vessel and ultimately to
form a vortex. Heavier materials are forced outward by centrifugal force and down
from the barrel section into the cone section. Materials heavier than fluid (i.e., usually
water) flow down the inner wall and exit through the apex; the lighter materials
sweep into the center vortex by inward fluid motion and are carried out to the outlet.
When hydrocyclones are selected, several factors have to be considered in order to
reach an optimal and efficient utilization: the need of relatively complex fluid-
dynamic circuits (i.e., presence of pumps, storage bins, pipes, valves, etc.) and the
need to perform a strict feed characteristics control (i.e., constancy of water/solids
ratio, polymers particle morphological and morphometrical characteristics, polymers
surface status).

2.4.2 Electrostatic separation

Electrostatic separation is usually applied when dielectric particles are handled.
Dielectric particles, when electrostatically charged, can be separated according to their
polarity charge (Reinsch et al., 2014). The electrostatic separation architecture is
commonly constituted by two electrodes: one positive and the other negative. Particle
charging conditions and modality are of paramount importance in this kind of separa-
tion. Plastic particles charging is usually carried out utilizing the triboelectric effect.
This effect is based on rubbing together plastic waste particles of different character-
istics; as a result they transfer their electrical charge and surfaces are thus affected by
different electrical charges allowing to perform separation inside an electric field
where also charged electrodes are present. For example, charged plastics falling
down freely in the area between two electrodes change their trajectory due to the mobi-
lized attractive/repulsive electrostatic forces and as a consequence can be “easily”
collected and separated (Fig. 2.7). This separation can be successfully applied with
reference to several polymers, according to the triboelectric charging sequence
(Dodbiba et al., 2001):

ðþ Þ ABS  PP  PC  PET  PS  PE  PVC  PTFE ð Þ

When two plastics in this sequence are rubbed against each other, the plastic closer
to the positive end is charged positively and the one closer to the negative end is
charged negatively. For example, if PVC is rubbed against PET, PVC is charged nega-
tively and PET positively. On the contrary, when PET is rubbed against PP, PET is
charged positively and PP negatively.
Main disadvantages of this separation are linked to: (1) the operative conditions
(i.e., plastics and more in general the waste stream have to be dry), (2) particle
size and shape (i.e., particle surface characteristics and particle size affect the “char-
geability”), (3) presence of additives/fillers (Albrecht et al., 2011) and, finally, (4)
presence of dirtiness on particle surface that can change or inhibit particle surface
charging.
20 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

Plastics waste
Tribocharger
feed

Negatively charged particles

Positively charged particles

Positive Negative
electrode electrode
(+) (–)

Output products
Figure 2.7 Schematic representation of a triboelectric separation process.

2.4.3 Magnetic density separation

Magnetic density separation (MDS) is a density-based sorting process realized utiliz-
ing a “magnetic fluid” constituted by a liquid (i.e., water) and magnetic particles (i.e.,
iron oxide particles of about 10e20 nm) suspended in the liquid (Bakker et al., 2009).
Through a special magnetic field (Rem et al., 2013) an artificial gravity is produced, as
a magnetic force. Such a force varies exponentially in the vertical direction, and the
effective density of the liquid also varies accordingly in the same direction. The result
is that waste particles (i.e., plastic particles) will float in the liquid at a level where the
effective density is equal to their own density. In other words, particles characterized
by different densities are suspended at different heights (Hu et al., 2013). Adopting this
strategy, it is thus possible to separate plastic particles characterized by very close den-
sity values, such as PP and PE (Serranti et al., 2015) (Fig. 2.8) and PVC and rubber
from construction and demolition waste (Luciani et al., 2015). Particular care has to
be addressed to the correct fulfilling of the following fundamental steps: (1) wetting,
to make the polyolefin surface hydrophilic (Hu et al., 2010), (2) feeding, separating,
and collecting to avoid turbulence in the flow stream, before, during, and after the sep-
aration, negatively affecting particle flow inside the magnetic fluid.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 21

Magnet

PP
Plastic waste Splitter
feed
PE
PP Ferro fluid
PE Mixing zone Separation zone Collection zone

Figure 2.8 Schematic representation of a magnetic density separation system for PP and PE.

Such technology is very useful to produce high-quality secondary raw materials,

that is, single polymer stream with a very low presence of impurities.

2.4.4 Flotation
Flotation processes are based on the different surface wettability properties of mate-
rials (Wang et al., 2015). In principle, flotation works very similarly to a sink and float
process, where the density characteristics of the materials, with respect to that of the
medium where they are placed are at the base of the separation. Sometimes a centrif-
ugal field is applied to enhance separation. Flotation works in a different way in the
sense that in a liquid medium, usually water, a “carrier” is introduced, air bubbles,
responsible to float hydrophobic particles that adhere to the bubbles with respect to
the hydrophilic ones that sink. According to surface plastic characteristics, this tech-
nique can be profitably applied, in principle, to separate waste polymers (Fraunholcz,
2004). To enhance or reduce plastic surface characteristics (i.e., hydrophobic or hydro-
philic) appropriate collectors, conditioners (Singh, 1998; Shen et al., 2002), and flota-
tion cell operative conditions (i.e., air flow rate, agitation) can be utilized. Usually
plastic flotation is carried out in alkaline conditions (Takoungsakdakun and
Pongstabodee, 2007). Once floated, hydrophobic polymers are recovered as well as
the sunk ones (i.e., hydrophilic) at the bottom of the cell. This technique, even if it
is well-known (Buchan and Yarar, 1995) and in principle quite powerful is not widely
used mainly for three reasons: (1) it is a wet technique, this means that water has to be
recovered and processed before reutilization, due to the presence of the reagents and
contaminants, (2) polymer surface status (i.e., presence of dirtiness/pollutants and/or
of physical/chemical alteration) can strongly affect floatability, and (3) large variation
of waste plastics feed in terms of composition. Flotation allows to separate PS, PVC,
PET, PC, and mixed polyolefins (MPO).

2.4.5 Sensor-based sorting

Plastic sorting, with respect to other materials, and/or different polymers, is usually
carried out utilizing specific materials’/polymers’ physical properties allowing separa-
tion. Separation often occurs defining handling architectures (i.e., separation
22 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

equipment) designed and set up in order to enhance how waste particles behave in
respect of the selected property to perform separation. This behavior is usually accom-
plished, as previously stated, through particle trajectory changes at the device output/s
and/or through concentration in different section of the separation equipment. The
mechanical removal of these different streams generates concentrates, wastes and, in
some cases, one or more intermediate compositional product classes, called “mid-
dlings.” Material physical property can be thus considered as the “direct” responsible
of separation.
The adoption of sensors to perform sorting means to follow a different approach,
requiring the utilization and the implementation of online analytical logics and robotic
units to perform the separation. Materials in fact, have to be first detected, then
identified and topologically assessed in the stream; after these steps automated devices
realize the sorting.
Following this approach, it substantially means to take into account two aspects.
The first one is linked to the sensing principle selected to perform materials identifica-
tion and the second one is related to the required actuators logics/architectures utilized
to collect the materials of interest from the investigated waste flow stream. Sensor-
based sorting techniques are thus substantially classified according to these principles
(i.e., sensing and collection). In all cases there are three main components of the
sorting architecture: a conveyor belt for materials feeding, a sensor connected to a
computer analyzing data collected from the waste stream on the conveyor belt, and
a pneumatic system to mechanically separate materials (Fig. 2.9). Sensors do not
require contact with the materials and are nondestructive.

2.4.5.1 Visible spectroscopy

Sorting in the visible range is mainly focused on the utilization of spectroscopic analyt-
ical techniques, performed in the wavelength range 400e700 nm, or on the adoption of
digital imaging. Both the approaches are not particularly efficient in the case of plastic
recycling, being that the detection principle is mainly based on what is detectable
according to investigated individuals’ pictorial attributes, that is, visible spectra,
when spectroscopy analysis is performed, or digital color components (RGB, HSY,
etc.), size, shape, and surface textural attributes when imaging is applied (J€ahne, 1993).

Feed waste Sensor

Air gun

Conveyor belt
Material 1 Material 2

Figure 2.9 Schematic representation of a sensor-based sorting system.

Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 23

Both the approaches are not very efficient to perform polymer sorting; for this reason,
they are not widely utilized except sometimes at the beginning of the process and when
polymers are constituted by large products (i.e., several centimeters) whose color and/
or shape (Zhu and Basir, 2006) can be associated to a known specific polymer-based
manufactured product (i.e., container, pipe, frame, etc.). They can be used also at the
end of a plastic recycling process to sort by color a monomaterial stream of plastics, as
for example, green, blue, and transparent PET.

2.4.5.2 Near infrared spectroscopy

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is probably the most utilized technology in plastic
recycling. It is based on the collection of reflected spectra of polymers properly ener-
gized by a light source (Beigbeder et al., 2013). The investigated wavelength range is
usually 1000e700 nm; in some cases it is extended to the SWIR region
(1000e2500 nm). The NIR sensor sorting system includes: a conveyor belt, illumina-
tion system and optical sensor, a separation unit with compressed air nozzles. Many
different polymers can be separated by near infrared sensors as they are characterized
by different spectral signature in such wavelength range (i.e., PP, PE, PVC, PET, PS,
etc.). Plastics can be also separated from other materials, as paper, wood, glass, stones,
etc. The reasons of the wide use of this technique are mainly related to: (1) NIR does
not require any direct contact with the investigated object, (2) it can be applied defining
very flexible architectures, thanks to the possibility to largely utilize fiber opticse
based architectures both to energize and to collect the spectral response of plastics
(i.e., analysis and identification, in respect of previously set up reference spectral
libraries of the different polymers’ infrared absorption bands), (3) high detection/iden-
tification speed, (4) multiple detection (i.e., multiple check of the same sample), and
(5) no color interference. The size of flakes to be sorted as well as flakes disposal
on the conveyor belt plays an important role, affecting the sensor detection. Sensing
probes, in fact, are characterized by a physical dimension that influences the investi-
gated image field and, as a consequence, the analytical spatial resolution of the single
sensing unit (i.e., usually installed as an array). Black or very dark polymers are almost
impossible to be identified due to their low surface reflectance.

2.4.5.3 Hyperspectral imaging

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is an innovative fast, and nondestructive technique able
to collect both spectral and spatial information from an object. The collected informa-
tion generates a data structure defined “hypercube,” that is a dataset containing both
spatial data (i.e., pixel coordinates: x and y axis) and spectral data (i.e., z axis, repre-
senting the spectrum associated to each pixel). The investigated spectral range depends
on the sensor mounted on the device and can vary from VIS to NIR, SWIR, or MWIR
regions, depending on applications. The application of this technique dramatically
grew in these last years in many sectors (i.e., chemical, pharmaceutical, agricultural,
food industry, etc.) and also in recycling: glass recycling (Bonifazi and Serranti,
2006), compost product quality control (Dall’Ara et al., 2012), recycled aggregates
24 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

from concrete (Serranti and Bonifazi, 2014; Bonifazi et al., 2015, 2018b) and charac-
terization of different plastic waste (Serranti et al., 2012a,b; Hu et al., 2013; Ulrici
et al., 2013).
This large use is intimately linked to some intrinsic characteristics of the HSI
sensing device (Bonifazi and Serranti, 2014) as: (1) the possibility to perform a contin-
uous monitoring of waste large flow streams as disposed on a conveyor belt thanks to
the scan line camera architecture, (2) easy topological definition of the individual to
sort, (3) utilization of different time scaleerelated sampling strategies, in case of
specific product oriented control/quality actions to develop, (4) implementation of
fast and reliable recognition logics, strongly linked to HSI detectors characteristics
(e.g., possibility handle spectra, images, or both spectra and images), (5) total absence
of environmental impacts and/or safety constraints related to the HSI utilized device,
and finally (6) relatively low cost of the device. With reference to polymer recycling,
HSI is particularly powerful (Jansen et al., 2012) allowing to implement online sorting
and/or quality control strategies, thanks to the possibility to identify the spectral
regions, in the NIR/SWIR range (1000e1700 or 1000e2500 nm), where polymer
molecules absorb light by overtone or combination vibrations (Workman and Weyer,
2007). This behavior produces spectral signature characteristics of the polymer thus
allowing its identification (Bonifazi et al., 2018a). In the last years, high-speed spectral
cameras working in the MWIR wavelength range were introduced in the market in
order to sort black polymers that are not classified by sensors working in the
commonly investigated spectral ranges (400e2500 nm) due to the higher light absorp-
tion and the consequent low reflectance (e.g.,: Rozenstein et al., 2017).
HSI-based sorting architectures are usually constituted by a conveyor unit (i.e., belt)
carrying materials to sort (Serranti et al., 2006). A sensing unit inspects and continu-
ously acquires spectra at a fixed rate. Spectra are then processed by a classification
engine previously set up, according to a material spectral reference library, and indi-
vidual/s recognition is performed. An array of compressed air nozzles mounted at
the end of the conveyor belt provides to separate through a shot of air the recognized
individuals (Tatzer et al., 2005; Picon et al., 2010).

2.4.5.4 X-ray fluorescence

Sorting based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is based on the detection of the emitted
wavelengths, as well as of the released energy, by a sample previously energized by
X-ray whose atoms release energy generating an X-ray fluorescence radiation. The
elements contained in the sample influence the emission both in terms of wavelengths
and energy. Such a technique is quite powerful and it is largely used in the waste
sector, mainly in wood recycling (Blassino et al., 2002) to evaluate the presence of
potential harmful elements (i.e., arsenic, chromium, copper, etc.).
In the waste plastic sector, this technique is primarily utilized to sort PVC from PET
(Brunner et al., 2015). The use of this technique is expected to increase in the future, as
it can be applied to the separation of brominated plastic from an input stream of
shredded plastics. Bromine is in fact largely used as flame-retardant, especially in elec-
tronic devices. Other XRF-based approaches have been proposed as the Energy
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 25

Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) (Bezati et al., 2011) adding tracers to the
polymer matrix.
Sorting architectures are similar in both cases (i.e., XRF and EDXRF). Referring to
EDXRF, the operative unit is constituted by an X-ray beam energizing the waste flow
stream (i.e., particles transported on a conveyor belt) to analyze and sort. X-ray beam is
focused and passed through the material until it reaches the detector. The signal
collected by the detector is processed, the presence of tracers identified, their amount
evaluated, and according to predetermined rules, the corresponding plastic individuals
blow out by air.
XRF does not require any sample preparation/collection; it can identify black and/
or very dark polymers, as well the presence of contaminants on polymers surface and
as individuals. The disadvantages of this technique in plastic sorting is that it is not able
to distinguish between polymers. Furthermore, there are some safety constraints
related to the utilization of X-ray sources.

2.4.5.5 Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an analytical technique based on the
utilization of high power laser pulse that performs an ablation of the sample to analyze,
thus producing plasma plumes (Cremers and Radziemski, 2006). The radiation
produced by the ablated portion of the investigated material is then analyzed by a
CCD-based spectrometric device (Gondal et al., 2007). Following this approach
(i.e., identification of the atomic emission lines), it is thus possible to analyze the prop-
erties of waste in terms of constituent materials (Sattler and Yoshida, 1993) and/or, as
in the case of polymers, elements present as carbon and hydrogen and their resulting
line intensity ratio (C/H) (Anzano et al., 2008).
Recently a compact and reliable architecture was proposed to perform the recogni-
tion of polymer particles following a statistical analysis starting from the information
collected by the so-called laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) and processed
performing linear and rank correlations, in the wavelength interval: 200e800 nm
(Anzano et al., 2006) or performing, as previously outlined, instant ratio analysis of
molecular bands to identify the different energetic materials (Anzano et al., 2011).
Following this latter approach PVC, PS, PET, PP, LPDE, and HDPE can be identified.
Sorting architecture is constituted by mechanical units that, according to the LIPS
based detection, sort polymers into their respective bins.

2.4.6 Auxiliary separation technologies

Auxiliary separation technologies, referred to as plastic waste recycling, are those
allowing to clean the plastic waste stream from the presence of other materials with
different characteristics and/or nature. They are usually applied at the beginning
(i.e., scalping) or at the end (i.e., refining) of the process. Materials usually removed
through such techniques are: (1) ferrous metals, as low-grade stainless steel, nickel
alloys, etc., (2)nonferrous metals, as aluminum. Magnets (Wills, 2016) and Eddy cur-
rent (Rem, 1999) based separators, respectively, are commonly utilized.
26 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

2.4.6.1 Magnetic separation

The magnetic separation is commonly applied utilizing belt magnets, magnetic head
pulleys, and drum magnets (Svoboda, 2004). Schematic representations of the
different typologies of magnetic separators are reported in Fig. 2.10. In belt magnets,
the magnet is usually installed above the plastic waste flow stream (Fig. 2.10a).

Belt magnet
Feed waste

(a)

Conveyor belt
Magnetic particles
Non magnetic particles

Feed waste

(b) Magnetic head pulley

Conveyor belt
Magnetic particles
Non magnetic particles

Feed waste

(c)

Conveyor belt
Magnetic particles
Non magnetic particles
Magnetic
drum

Figure 2.10 Different typologies of magnetic separators. (a) Overbelt magnetic separator; (b)
Magnetic head pulley separator; (c) Magnetic drum separator.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 27

The overhead magnetic field has a belt moving across its surface at approximately a
90 degree angle to the material flow. Ferrous metal particles are thus attracted,
removed from plastics, and discharged, as the moving belt of the separator turns
away from the magnetic field. Magnetic head pulleys are usually installed at the end
of a conveyor belt, beneath the belt (Fig. 2.10b). Ferrous metal particles are thus
held to the belt, while plastics can be downloaded. Drum magnets are commonly
installed inside feeder chutes, between chutes and conveyors (Fig. 2.10c). Ferrous
metals are held by the drum, until a divider provides to its discharge; on the contrary,
plastic wastes continue their flow. All the previous mentioned devices are normally
positioned at the beginning of the plastics recycling plant having the aim to remove
large magnetic polluting individuals. To perform a strong refining/control of the final
products, high-intensity permanent magnets are usually utilized (Svoboda and Fujita,
2003.).

2.4.6.2 Eddy current separation

Eddy current separation is based on the use of a high speed magnetic rotor system and
is used to remove nonferrous metals (i.e., aluminum and copper) from waste plastic
streams. Due to the high speed of the rotor, an electric current, called Eddy current,
is induced into conducting metals. The induced electric current produces a magnetic
field, opposed by the field created by the rotor, repelling the conducting metals. The
remaining materials such as plastics, glass, and other dry recyclables will simply free-
fall over the rotor, separating them from the repelled metals (Fig. 2.11). Eddy current
separators are usually located in the preliminary stages of the process. Such a choice is
mainly due to the fact that Eddy current separation process is highly dependent on the
size of the feed particles according to its separation principle. The magnitude of the
repulsive forces depends on the specific conductivity, mass, morphological and mor-
phometrical characteristics of the particles, and on the intensity and distribution of the
magnetic field (Van der Walk et al., 1986).

Feed waste

Magnetic
high-speed rotor

Conveyor belt
Non metal particles
Non ferrous metal particles
Figure 2.11 Schematic representation of an eddy current separator.
28 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

2.5 Recycled plastics quality control

The quality certification of recycled plastic products is fundamental to increase their
economic value and to foster their penetration in the market. Product quality assess-
ment is an important aspect in all industrial manufacturing sectors, but this is particu-
larly true for the recycled materials whose market is still hindered by many barriers.
Recycled polymeric materials are expected to have the same high quality and
performance characteristics of those of the corresponding virgin polymers; however,
the achievement of high quality levels requested by the end users through the mechan-
ical recycling process is not an easy task. Furthermore, many plastic brand owners and
manufacturers distrust recycled plastics and fear that they cannot assure their need of
high volumes of reliable material with clearly defined constant quality specifications.
As a consequence, there is a low demand for recycled plastic, especially in high value
products, and its use is often limited to low-value or niche applications (COM, 2018).
It is evident that there is a strong need not only to ensure and to improve quality of
plastic recycled products through technological innovation in the recycling process,
but also to develop and define specific quality standards for recycled plastic products.
The quality requirements must be related to the different applications of plastic prod-
ucts such as food contact or durable goods like electronics and automobiles.
Recycled plastics can vary from virgin resins in a number of ways, including
contamination originated from multiple sources (e.g., impurities, the use-phase,
misuse, degradation, improper separation of materials, legacy substances, or cross-
contamination during waste collection). Such incidental contaminants can affect the
quality and safety of recyclates and therefore fast, cost-effective quality control strate-
gies should be developed and implemented at plastic recyclers’ premises, in order to
produce a certified output that meet customer specifications (Vilaplana and Karlsson,
2008).

2.5.1 Recycled plastics quality measurements

The quality assessment of recycled plastic products should be based not only on the
same testing equipment commonly utilized for virgin resins, but also on specific char-
acterization measurements related to the possible contamination and degradation of a
plastic recycled material.
Traditionally the basic measurements to evaluate plastic product quality and perfor-
mance in different applications are rheological and mechanical properties (e.g., melt
flow rate, tensile and impact strength, etc.). For recycled plastics it is important to
assess also other important properties that can affect quality, such as the degree of
mixing, in terms of presence of polymeric impurities in a single polymer stream, the
level of degradation (chemical and structural/textural alteration), and the presence of
low-molecular weight compounds such as contaminants, additives, etc. (Karlsson,
2004; Vilaplana et al., 2007).
One of the main challenges related to the production of plastic recycled materials
lies in the fact that different polymers are incompatible and immiscible at molecular
level; even low levels of contaminations will affect the quality of the target stream,
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 29

for example, the presence of small amounts of PVC in a PET stream will make it brittle
and yellowish when recycled (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018). It follows that plastic
must be recycled as much as possible in single polymer streams. For a plastic producer,
stability in composition of the plastic raw material fed to the plant is very important,
since even small variations in melting point or other properties can affect the produc-
tion, in terms of functionality, strength, or durability of products that is not acceptable
for some high-tech applications such as medical devices or automobile components.
This means that a constant and stable composition of a recycled plastic stream must
be assured.
The methods commonly utilized to check the quality of a single polymer recycled
stream in terms of presence of other polymers are applied at laboratory scale, which
means time-consuming operations, involving the presence of a trained operator, a
sample collection, and preparation step. Examples of commonly adopted techniques
at laboratory scale are DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) and FT-IR (Fourier-
Transform Infrared Spectroscopy). An alternative solution to check the quality of the
recycled plastic products is the use of hyperspectral imaging that can be applied
online directly on the conveyor belt without any sample preparation (Serranti
et al., 2011; Luciani et al., 2015) (Fig. 2.12). Polymer mixing evaluation can be
achieved through the definition of classification models, allowing the identification
of different plastics at the same time. HSI in the NIR/SWIR wavelengths ranges
(1000e1700/2500 nm) coupled with chemometrics were successfully applied to
set up fast and reliable quality control strategies at recycling plant scale (i.e., better
and more strict control of sorting and separation process stages) with reference to
many different polymers, including PP, HDPE, LDPE, PET, PVC, etc. (Bonifazi
et al., 2018a).

Spectral-imaging
instrumentation Monitor

Illuminant Moving
belt

Console

PC

Figure 2.12 HSI platform working in the NIR range (1000e1700 nm) developed for quality
control of different recycled polymers.
30 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

The possible presence of harmful substances can also limit the use of recycled
plastic as secondary raw materials, especially in applications related to food pack-
aging, due to possible dangerous contamination. X-ray fluorescence can be used to
check the presence of hazardous materials and elements, such as brominated flame
retardants and chlorine-containing materials, both of which can only be detected at
the elemental level through X-ray analysis. Other analytical techniques can be
used to determine the presence of additives in plastics, such as inductively coupled
plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) or LIBS (Vilaplana and Karlsson,
2008).

2.6 Technical challenges in plastic recycling

In the following sections, some of the main current hot research topics on plastic recy-
cling are introduced.

2.6.1 PP-PE separation

Polypropylene and polyethylene, belonging to the family of polyolefins, are the most
produced plastics at global level. A mixture of PP-PE is commonly an output of a recy-
cling plant treating plastics, especially when dealing with household waste due to their
wide use in packaging. However, in order to produce high-quality secondary polyole-
fins that means single polymer streams, a purity of at least 97% must be reached
(Bakker et al., 2009). MDS, as already mentioned in Section 2.4.3, was proposed as
a powerful technology to separate PP and PE (Fig. 2.8). Its innovation is based on
the use of a medium characterized by a gradient of density, allowing to separate not
only materials with very low differences in density, as PP and PE, but also more
than two materials in one single step (Serranti et al., 2015).

2.6.2 LDPE-HDPE separation

LDPE and HDPE are both semicrystalline polymers but the degree of crystallinity is
higher for HDPE and lower for LDPE, due to the different number of polymer
branches (da Silva and Wiebeck, 2017). Their mechanical separation is not an easy
task, due to their very similar physical characteristics, and especially their density
(i.e., LDPE: 0.926e0.939 g/cm3 and HDPE: 0.940e0.965 g/cm3).
The possibility to correctly identify these two polymers by fast and reliable
methods working online is still a challenge and represents an important goal to reach.
In a recent study, an innovative strategy based on SWIR-HSI was explored allowing
LDPE, HDPE, and other polymers to be recognized in one shot in a plastic waste
flow stream (Serranti et al., 2018) (Fig. 2.13). The study was carried out at
laboratory-scale, but it is very promising and it could be applied in the near future
also at plant-scale, thanks to the fast growing of HSI technologies and corresponding
computing power.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 31

(a) 0.9
PVC
0.8 PP
PS
0.7 LDPE
HDPE
0.6
Reflectance

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1000 1500 2000 2500
Wavelength (nm)

(b)
PP

LDPE

HDPE

PS

PVC

Figure 2.13 a) Average reflectance spectra in the SWIR range (1000e2500 nm) of different
polymers; (b) source image and corresponding prediction map of the different polymers
obtained by the application of classification algorithms on hyperspectral images.

2.6.3 Black or dark color polymers

Recycling of end-of-life black or dark color plastics is hampered by the availability
of suitable technology to sort them by polymer type (Turner, 2018). NIR sensor-
based sorting, commonly adopted in plastic recycling plants, is unable to identify
black or dark color plastics, usually colored with carbon black, due to their very
low reflectance in this investigated spectral region. Recent studies explored the
potential of MWIR detection (3e12 mm) in black plastic waste sorting (Rozenstein
et al., 2017). Black or dark color polymers are in fact characterized by specific
absorption features in this spectral range. The first integrated efficient industrial
equipment to sort black polymers using MWIR technology have started to be
commercialized in the last years.
32 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

2.6.4 Biopolymers
Biodegradable plastics can be mistaken for and mixed with conventional plastics,
contaminating recyclate streams, as they cannot be recycled using conventional
mechanical recycling techniques.
In recent years, the biopolymer PLA (polylactic acid) has been introduced in the
market as an environmentally friendly packaging solution alternative to the very
popular PET. PLA is biodegradable and compostable, being entirely made from
corn or sugarcane, and it is characterized by a look and feel very similar to that of
PET. As a consequence of its diffusion, the recycling industry started to be concerned
by the use of this biopolymer, since the potential contamination of PLA in the PET
recycling stream can have a negative impact on the physical properties, for example,
on molecular weight, of extruded rPET, making the material unfit for use (La Mantia
et al., 2012).
The use of HSI in the NIR range (1000e1700 nm) was successfully applied to
recognize and classify PET and PLA polymer flakes, in order to develop an innovative
strategy for quality control and/or sorting action in plastic recycling streams (Ulrici
et al., 2013) (Fig. 2.14).

2.6.5 Marine plastics

The quantity of marine plastics dramatically grew accordingly to the increased produc-
tion of polymer-based goods (C ozar et al., 2014, 2015, 2017) and their improper
disposal at their end-of-life (Barnes et al., 2009; Hidalgo-Ruz et al., 2012; Andrady,
2017).
Marine plastic litter originates from several sources, both land- and sea-based. It can
be found on beaches, seafloor, and water (Pham et al., 2014; Suaria and Aliani, 2014;
Munari et al., 2016). Once plastic litter enters the ocean, it undergoes degradation
processes due to UV radiation, oxidation, and wave action (Claessens et al., 2013),
inducing fragmentation and the generation of abundant small plastic particles (Cozar
et al., 2014), the so called microplastics, that is waste polymers individual below
5 mm. These small particles can easily enter the marine food chain, transferring

(a) (b) (c)

White tile
Transparent
PLA flakes
Transparent
PET flakes
Expanded
PLA flakes
Expanded
PET flakes
1 cm
Figure 2.14 (a) Acquisition scheme of different PLA and PET flakes, both transparent and
expanded; (b) corresponding RGB image; (c) prediction map obtained by the application of
classification algorithms on hyperspectral images.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 33

hazardous substances to the biota and causing important environmental impacts

(Anderson et al., 2016). Their recovery is thus of primary importance even if their
characteristics, due to the previous mentioned alteration effects, can influence both
their behavior in the marine environment (i.e., flowing and floating properties) and
the further potential collecting/recycling strategies.
Polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polysty-
rene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are the main sources of microplastics
(Rocha-Santos and Duarte, 2015; Suaria et al., 2016). Their fast, reliable, and robust
identification thus represent the first step to better understand generating sources
and transport mechanisms in the seas, as well as the setup of correct separation/clas-
sification strategies to maximize the recovery in different classes of products. The
previously mentioned HSI approach can dramatically contribute to fulfill both the
goals, as presented in a recent study (Serranti et al., 2018).

References
Al-Salem, S., Lettieri, P., Baeyens, J., 2009. Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste
(PSW): a review. Waste Management 29, 2625e2643.
Albrecht, V., Simon, F., Gohs, U., Kretzschmar, B., Reinsch, E., Peuker, U.A., 2011. Influence
of Additives and Filler on the Electrostatic Separation of Polyolefin Mixtures. Eurofillers,
Dresden, Germany.
Anderson, J.C., Park, B.J., Palace, V.P., 2016. Microplastics in aquatic environments: impli-
cations for Canadian ecosystems. Environmental Pollution 218, 269e280.
Andrady, A.L., 2017. The plastic in microplastics: a review. Marine Pollution Bulletin 119,
12e22.
Anzano, J., Bonilla, B., Montull-Ibor, B., Casas-Gonzalez, J., 2011. Plastic identification and
comparison by multivariate techniques with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.
Journal of Applied Polymer Science 121, 2710e2716.
Anzano, J., Casanova, M.E., Bermudez, M.S., Lasheras, R.J., 2006. Rapid characterization of
plastics using laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS). Polymer Testing 25 (5),
623e627.
Anzano, J., Lasheras, R.J., Bonilla, B., Casas, J., 2008. Classification of polymers by deter-
mining of C1:C2:CN:H:N:O ratios by laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS). Polymer
Testing 27 (6), 705e710.
ASTM, 2014. ASTM D7611 Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for
Resin Identification.
Bakker, E.J., Rem, P.C., Fraunholcz, N., 2009. Upgrading mixed polyolefin waste with
magnetic density separation. Waste Management 29, 1712e1717.
Barnes, D.K.A., Galgani, F., Thompson, R.C., Barlaz, M., 2009. Accumulation and fragmen-
tation of plastic debris in global environments. Philosophical transactions of the Royal
Society of London 364, 1985e1998.
Beigbeder, J., Perrin, D., Mascaro, J.F., Lopez-Cuesta, J.M., 2013. Study of the physicochemical
properties of recycled polymers from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
sorted by high resolution near infrared devices. Resource Conservation and Recyling 78,
105e114.
34 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

Bezati, F., Froelich, D., Massardier, V., Maris, E., 2011. Addition of X-ray fluorescent tracers
into polymers, new technology for automatic sorting of plastics: proposal for selecting
some relevant tracers. Resources Conservation and Recycling 55 (12), 1214e1221.
Blassino, M., Solo-Gabriele, H.M., Townsend, T., 2002. Pilot scale evaluation of sorting
technologies for CCA treated wood waste. Waste Management and Research 20, 290e301.
Bonifazi, G., Capobianco, G., Serranti, S., 2018a. A hierarchical classification approach for
recognition of low-density (LDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in mixed plastic
waste based on short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging. Spectrochimica Acta
Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 198, 115e122.
Bonifazi, G., Palmieri, R., Serranti, S., 2015. Hyperspectral imaging applied to end-of-life
(EOL) concrete recycling. Technisches Messen 82 (12), 616e624.
Bonifazi, G., Palmieri, R., Serranti, S., 2018b. Evaluation of attached mortar on recycled
concrete aggregates by hyperspectral imaging. Construction and Building Materials 169,
835e842.
Bonifazi, G., Serranti, S., 3-4 February 2014. Quality control by hyperspectral imaging (HSI) in
solid waste recycling: Logics, algorithms and procedures. In: Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T
Electronic Imaging - The International Society for Optical Engineering, Image Processing:
Machine Vision Applications VII, 9024. Article number 90240T, 2014, DOI: 10.1117/
12.2038374 San Francisco, CA, United States.
Bonifazi, G., Serranti, S., 2006. Imaging spectroscopy based strategies for ceramic glass con-
taminants removal in glass recycling. Wastes Management 26 (6), 627e639.
Bradley, D., 1965. The Hydrocyclone. Pergamon, New York.
Brunner, S., Fomin, P., Kargel, C., 2015. Automated sorting of polymer flakes: fluorescence
labeling and development of a measurement system prototype. Waste Management 38,
49e60.
Buchan, R., Yarar, B., 1995. Recovering plastics for recycling by mineral processing techniques.
Journal of the Minerals Metals & Material Soceity 47, 52e55.
Callister, W., Rethwisch, D., 2010. Materials Science & Engineering. Wiley & Sons.
Christensen, T.H., Fruergaard, T., 2011. Recycling of plastic. In: Christensen, T.H. (Ed.), Solid
Waste Technology and Management, vol. 2. Blackwell Publishing Inc.
Claessens, M., Van Cauwenberghe, L., Vandegehuchte, M.B., Janssen, C.R., 2013. New
techniques for detection of microplastics in sediments and field collected organisms.
Marine Pollution Bulletin 70, 227e233.
COM, 2015. Action Plan for a Circular Economy, p. 614.
COM, 2018. A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, p. 28.
C
ozar, A., et al., 2015. Plastic accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. PLoS One 10 (4),
e0121762. Available at: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121762.
ozar, A., et al., 2017. The Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in the North Atlantic
C
branch of the thermohaline circulation. Science Advances 3 (4), e1600582.
C 
ozar, A., Echevarría, F., Gonzalez-Gordillo, J.I., Irigoien, X., Ubeda, B., Hernandez-Le
on, S.,

Palma, A.T., Navarro, S., García-de-Lomas, J., Ruiz, A., Fernandez-de-Puelles, M.L.,
Duarte, C.M., 2014. Plastic debris in the open ocean. PNAS 111, 10239e10244.
Cremers, D.A., Radziemski, L.J., 2006. Handbook of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.
Wiley, Chichester.
da Silva, D.J., Wiebeck, H., 2017. Using PLS, iPLS and siPLS linear regressions to determine
the composition of LDPE/HDPE blends: a comparison between confocal Raman and ATR-
FTIR spectroscopies. Vibrational Spectroscopy 92 (2017), 256e266.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 35

Dall’Ara, A., Bonoli, A., Serranti, S., 2012. An innovative procedure to characterize properties
from tailored composts. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 11,
1825e1832.
Dodbiba, G., Shibayama, A., Miyazaki, T., Fujita, T., 2001. Electrostatic separation of the
shredded plastic mixtures using a tribo-cyclone. Magnetic and Electrical Separation 11
(1e2), 63e92.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016. The New plastics Economy.
Fraunholcz, N., 2004. Separation of waste plastics by froth flotation - a review, part I. Minerals
Engineering 17, 261e268.
Gondal, M.A., Hussain, T., Yamani, Z.H., Baig, M.A., 2007. The role of various binding
materials for trace elemental analysis of powder samples using laser-induced breakdown
spectroscopy. Talanta 72 (2), 642e649.
Hahladakis, J.N., Iacovidou, E., 2018. Closing the loop on plastic packaging materials: what is
quality and how does it affect their circularity? The Science of the Total Environment 630,
1394e1400.
Hidalgo-Ruz, V., Gutow, L., Thompson, R.C., Thiel, M., 2012. Microplastics in the marine
environment: a review of the methods used for identification and quantification. Envi-
ronmental Science and Technology 46 (6), 3050e3075.
Hopewell, J., Dvorak, R., Kosior, E., 2009. Plastics recycling: challenges and opportunities.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological 364,
2115e2126.
Hori, K., Tsunekawa, M., Ueda, M., Hiroyoshi, N., Ito, M., Okada, H., 2009. Development of a
new gravity separator for plastic - a hybrid-jig. Materials Transactions 50, 2844e2847.
Hu, B., Fraunholz, N., Rem, P.C., 2010. Wetting technologies for high-accuracy sink-float
separations in water-based media. The Open Waste Management Journal 3, 71e80.
Hu, B., Serranti, S., Fraunholcz, N., Di Maio, F., Bonifazi, G., 2013. Recycling-oriented
characterization of polyolefin packaging waste. Waste Management 33, 574e584.
Ignatyev, I.A., Thielemans, W., Vander Beke, B., 2014. Recycling of polymers: a review.
Chemsuschem 7, 1579e1593.
J€ahne, B., 1993. Digital Image processing: Concepts, Algorithms, and Scientific Applications,
second ed. Springer, Berlin.
Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R.,
Law, K.L., 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347, 768e771.
Jansen, M., Feil, A., Pretz, T., 2012. Recovery of plastics from household waste by mechanical
separation. In: Thomé-Kozmiensky, J.K. (Ed.), Waste Management, Recycling and
Recovery, vol. 3. TK Verlag, Neuruppin, pp. 169e175.
Karlsson, S., 2004. Recycled polyolefins. Material properties and means for quality determi-
nation. In: Albertsson, A.C. (Ed.), Long Term Properties of Polyolefins, Advances in
Polymer Science, vol. 169. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
La Mantia, F.P., Botta, L., Morreale, M., Scaffaro, R., 2012. Effect of small amounts of pol-
y(lactic acid) on the recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) bottles. Polymer Degradation
and Stability 97, 21e24.
Luciani, V., Bonifazi, G., Rem, P., Serranti, S., 2015. Upgrading of PVC rich wastes by
magnetic density separation and hyperspectral imaging quality control. Waste Management
45, 118e125.
Munari, C., Corbau, C., Simeoni, U., Mistri, M., 2016. Marine litter on Mediterranean shores:
analysis of composition, spatial distribution and sources in north-western Adriatic beaches.
Waste Management 49, 483e490.
36 Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete

Pham, C.K., Ramirez-Llodra, E., Alt, C.H.S., Amaro, T., Bergmann, M., Canals, M., et al.,
2014. Marine litter distribution and density in European seas, from the shelves to deep
basins. PLoS One 9 (4), 1e13.
Pic
on, A., Ghita, O., Iriondo, P.M., Bereciartua, A., Whelan, P.F., 2010. Automation of waste
recycling using hyperspectral image analysis. In: IEEE Conference Emerging Technologies
and Factory Automation (ETFA). IEEE, pp. 1e4.
Plastics The Facts, 2017.
Ragaert, K., Delva, L., Van Geem, K., 2017. Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid plastic
waste. Waste Management 69, 24e58.
Rahimi, A., García, J.M., 2017. Chemical recycling of waste plastics for new materials pro-
duction. Nature Reviews Chemistry 1, 0046.
Reinsch, E., Frey, A., Albrecht, V., Simon, F., Peuker, U.A., 2014. Continuous electric sorting in
the recycling process of plastics. Chemie Ingenieur Technic 86, 784e796.
Rem, P.C., 1999. Eddy Current Separation. Delft University of Technology, Eburon, Delft, The
Netherlands.
Rem, P., Di Maio, F., Hu, B., Houzeaux, G., Baltes, L., Tierean, M., 2013. Magnetic fluid
equipment for sorting secondary polyolefins from waste. Environmental Engineering and
Management Journal 12, 951e958.
Rocha-Santos, T., Duarte, A.C., 2015. A critical overview of the analytical approaches to
occurrence, the fate and the behaviour of microplastics in the environment. TrAC-Trends in
Analytical Chemistry 65, 47e53.
Rozenstein, O., Puckrin, E., Adamowski, J., 2017. Development of a new approach based on
midwave infrared spectroscopy for post-consumer black plastic waste sorting in the
recycling industry. Waste Management 68, 38e44.
Sattler, H., Yoshida, T., 1993. New sorting system for recycling of magnesium and its alloys
after use. In: Proceeding of 1st International Conference on Processing Materials for
Properties, pp. 861e864.
Serranti S., Gargiulo A. and Bonifazi G., 2012b. Classification of polyolefins from building and
construction waste using NIR hyperspectral imaging system. Resources Conservation &
Recycling 61, 52e58.
Serranti, S., Bonifazi, G., February 05e06, 2014. Hyperspectral imaging applied to end-of-life
concrete. In: Proceedings SPIE Conference on Image Sensors and Imaging Systems, 9022,
9022T. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2039242. San Francisco, CA.
Serranti, S., Bonifazi, G., Pohl, R., 2006. Spectral cullet classification in the midinfrared field for
ceramic glass contaminants detection. Waste Management Research 24 (1), 48e59.
Serranti, S., Gargiulo, A., Bonifazi, G., 2011. Characterization of post-consumer polyolefin
wastes by hyperspectral imaging for quality control in recycling processes. Waste Man-
agement 31, 2217e2229.
Serranti, S., Gargiulo, A., Bonifazi, G., 2012a. Hyperspectral imaging for process and quality
control in recycling plants of polyolefin flakes. Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy 20,
573e581.
Serranti, S., Luciani, V., Bonifazi, G., Hu, B., Rem, P.C., 2015. An innovative recycling process
to obtain pure polyethylene and polypropylene from household waste. Waste Management
35, 12e20.
Serranti, S., Palmieri, R., Bonifazi, G., Cozar, A., 2018. Characterization of microplastic litter
from oceans by an innovative approach based on hyperspectral imaging. Waste Manage-
ment 76, 117e125.
Shapiro, M., Galperin, V., 2005. Air classification of solid particles: a review. Chemical
Engineering and Processing 44, 279e285.
Techniques for separation of plastic wastes 37

Shen, H., Pugh, R.J., Forssberg, E., 2002. Floatability, selectivity and flotation separation of
plastics by using a surfactant. Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering
Aspects 196, 63e70.
Singh, B.P., 1998. Wetting mechanism in the flotation separation of plastics. Filtrieren und
Separieren 35, 525e527.
Suaria, G., Aliani, S., 2014. Floating debris in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin
86 (1e2), 494e504.
Suaria, G., Avio, C.G., Mineo, A., Lattin, G.L., Magaldi, M.G., Belmonte, G., Moore, C.J.,
Regoli, F., Aliani, S., 2016. The Mediterranean Plastic Soup: synthetic polymers in
Mediterranean surface waters. Scientific Reports 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37551
e37551.
Svoboda, J., 2004. Magnetic Techniques for the Treatment of Materials - Reviews of Magnetic
Separators. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Svoboda, J., Fujita, T., 2003. Recent developments in magnetic methods of material separation.
Minerals Engineering 16, 785e792.
Takoungsakdakun, T., Pongstabodee, S., 2007. Separation of mixed post-consumer PET-POM-
PVC plastic waste using selective flotation. Separation and Purification Technology 54,
248e252.
Tatzer, P., Wolf, M., Panner, T., 2005. Industrial application for inline material sorting using
hyperspectral imaging in the NIR range. Real-Time Imaging 11 (2), 99e107.
Turner, A., 2018. Black plastics: Linear and circular economies, hazardous additives and marine
pollution. Environment International 117, 308e318.
Ulrici, A., Serranti, S., Ferrari, C., Cesare, D., Foca, G., Bonifazi, G., 2013. Efficient chemo-
metric strategies for PET-PLA discrimination in recycling plants using hyperspectral im-
aging. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems 122, 31e39.
Van der Walk, H.J.L., Braam, B.C., Dalmijn, W.L., 1986. Eddy-current separation by permanent
magnets - part I: theory. Resources and Conservation 12, 233e252.
Vilaplana, F., Karlsson, S., 2008. Quality concepts for the improved use of recycled polymeric
materials: a review. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering 293, 274e297.
Vilaplana, F., Ribes-Greus, A., Karlsson, S., 2007. Analytical strategies for the quality
assessment of recycled high-impact polystyrene: a combination of thermal analysis,
vibrational spectroscopy, and chromatography. Analitica Chimica Acta 604, 18e28.
Wang, C.Q., Wang, H., Fu, J.G., Liu, Y.N., 2015. Flotation separation of waste plastics for
recycling-a review. Waste Management 41, 28e38.
Wills, B.A., 2016. Mineral Processing Technology, eighth ed. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford,
UK, p. 498.
Workman Jr., J., Weyer, L., 2007. Practical Guide to Interpretive Near-infrared Spectroscopy.
CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. ISBN:9781439875254-CAT# K13491.
Zhu, H., Basir, O., 2006. A novel fuzzy evidential reasoning paradigm for data fusion with
applications in image processing. Soft Computing 10 (12), 1169e1180.