Tomra e-book: Analysing the viability of using 100% recycled plastics

TOMRA Sorting Recycling has published an e-book examining the role that recycling can play in providing solutions to the world’s worsening resource crisis. It explores the technical feasibility and progress made towards 100% recyclability of plastics and highlights the opportunities of using high-quality recycled plastics for manufacturers of plastic products and packaging.

The e-book points out that the consumers’ concerns about waste bring opportunities for brands to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and build customer loyalty, to the benefit of their business results.

The problem of plastic waste has reached enormous proportions, with the majority still going to landfill or dumped in the environment and ocean, and only a small part being recycled. Regulators and consumers alike see the need for change. New environmental targets and regulations across the world are putting the pressure on nations to improve their recycling rates. This will encourage investment and innovation in recycling, but more can be done now with the technologies that already exist.

TOMRA’s e-book explains how the significant progress in plastics recycling technologies, even for PET products, makes using 100% recycled plastics not only technically possible, but also economically worthwhile. The publication – titled ‘The Viability of Using 100% Recycled Plastics’ – is available online at https://hubs.ly/H0gYzDN0 and downloadable free-of-charge.

PET products can be made of high-quality 100% recycled plastics

TOMRA’s e-book begins by busting the misconception that PET packaging and products other than bottles can only be downcycled into inferior-quality products. In fact, PET bottle recycling has developed massively and it is possible to manufacture other PET products – and PET trays in particular – from 100% recycled materials, which makes sense environmentally and commercially.

Technological progress towards 100% recyclability continues

The e-book highlights the progress being made towards 100% recyclability with technologies such as the SHARP EYE and Laser Object Detection (LOD) systems recently introduced by TOMRA.

SHARP EYE uses the best sensor technology on the market, TOMRA’s FLYING BEAM® technology, to distinguish the small chemical differences between PET trays and bottles so they can be separated for equivalent-product recycling. Combined with TOMRA’s AUTOSORT machine, the SHARP EYE breakthrough technology makes it possible to seamlessly separate even single-layer PET trays from PET bottles.

Laser Object Detection is able to detect material that near infra-red (NIR) technology is incapable of identifying, enabling recycling systems to remove impurities and decontamination efficiently. As a result, it is technically possible and economically worthwhile to produce goods from 100% recycled materials. Used in combination with TOMRA’s AUTOSORT and FINDER machines, it enables waste and scrap recycling operations to reach final product purity levels not previously attainable.

Addressing the resource crisis

Tom Eng, Senior Vice President and Head of TOMRA Sorting Recycling, commented: “Recycling is part of the solution to the world’s worsening resource crisis. TOMRA’s e-book highlights the environmental and economic importance of sorting technologies for the significant role they can play in improving recycling rates. To complement this, product designers and manufacturers are now beginning to think more carefully about their products’ end-of-life recyclability. Consumers now think about, and our natural environment urgently needs, this. It is together that we can really make a difference.”