RECYCLING TODAY CONFERENCES: The Plastic Puzzle

Properly identifying the numerous types of plastic requires lifelong training, although automated identification equipment can provide crucial help.

In a session at Recycling Today’s Plastics Recycling Conference entitled “Plastics Identification 101,” a panel of speakers provided a range of tips to help recyclers solve the plastics jigsaw puzzle.

David Kaplan of Maine Plastics Inc., Zion, Ill., acknowledged that identifying plastics is no easy task—not when there are some 10,000 commercial available polypropylene resins and some 12,000 derivations of nylon.

However, working closely with the generator of the plastic and using automated analyzing instruments can provide recyclers with enough information to properly identify material and receive a better selling price.

When an automated analyzer isn’t available, Kaplan noted that four of the five senses can come into play as identification tools (recyclers should probably spare their taste buds as part of the process).

ACI Plastics, Flint, Mich., faces the identification quandary when working with incoming automobile bumpers. The compounding company’s Scott Melton says contamination is a critical consideration—both identifying it and removing it.

The company can currently save plastic auto parts makers from 35 to 65 cents per pound by using properly identified and purified regrind versus virgin material.

On the automated identification front, David Beckwith of Powerdtech International, Valparaiso, Ind., gave an overview of automated identification equipment. He said that properly identifying layered materials can be a challenge even for the most sophisticated devices.

Ron Sherga of Sherresults LLC, Arlington, Texas, stressed that all manufacturers using plastic are vigilant about the resins they use, and not just for food-contact packaging, but even those who manufacture septic tanks and sewer lines.

Properly identified material will not only fetch a better price, said Sherga, but will also save the business interruptions and added costs caused by a rejected load.

Recycling Today’s Plastics Recycling Conference was held in coordination with the Paper Recycling Conference and Electronics Recycling Conference at the Peabody Orlando in Florida June 10-12.