InnovatIon
37recyclinginternational.com | September/October | 2020
Artificial intelligence
bears fruit for plastic
recyclers
? ?
Specialists in using smart technology to process data are
working on two pilot recycling projects in the uK.
A tractor driving up and down rows of
trees in a US orchard is delivering vital
information for the farmer. Well
before the apples and pears are har-
vested, she knows exactly how much
fruit she will be taking to market.
That’s because the tractor has on-
board cameras linked to a computer
that logs every single fruit and also
calculates how many are out of sight.
It’s a practical and cost-effective use
of artificial intelligence (AI) and the UK
scientists responsible for this technical
advance are also helping plastics recy-
clers to become more profitable.
They work for Technology Research
Centre (TRC), based on a former Royal
Air Force base in Lincolnshire. Their
home is a restored control tower (see
PIC) that once used to make sure
planes take off and land safely. Now
they are helping clients to take off by
developing new opportunities or find-
ing solutions to market threats.
InnovatIon fund
TRC is currently working separate
projects with two UK recycling compa-
nies that have won Government fund-
ing from a EUR 1 million pot to find
innovative solutions to plastic waste. It
was a requirement of the award that
the pilot had to be collaboration
between different organisations and
the idea had to be completely new to
the UK.
According to Andrew Miles, TRC’s
executive director, his team has expe-
rience over two decades challenging
the reasons why clients say they can’t
achieve their goals. ‘We are creative
thinkers – we take what the customer
wants and throw away the reasons
why they can’t have it.’
One of the pilots involving TRC is with
Luxus, a privately owned company
that specialises in creating high-quali-
ty compounds with recycled polymers
for demanding sectors such as the
automotive industry. The other is with
RPC Containers, a packaging part of
the multi-national Berry Global Group.
MultI-layered challenge
Years of research and development
have created high performance pack-
aging with complexities that pose real
challenges for recyclers. The RPC pilot
is an innovative, separation technique
to achieve full recovery of polyethyl-
ene, polypropylene, polyethylene
terephthalate and aluminium from
multi-layered post-consumer packag-
ing waste (including film, semi-rigid
trays, cups and tubs). The partners are
confident this will lead to the process-
ing of 15 000 tonnes a year by 2020.
The concept was originally proved by
TRC a couple of years ago and the
current partnership scales up the idea.
The real challenge over recycling
multi-layered plastic and metal pack-
aging is its complexity. Contaminated
post-consumer packaging makes the
task of recycling even harder. Most
therefore goes to landfill or incinera-
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??
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