WASHINGTON -- A plastic industry research group has unveiled a high-tech, computerized bottle sorter for recycling plants that it says should speed up the laborious process of separating plastic refuse and expand the types of plastics that can be recycled.
The group, the American Plastics Council, underwrote the rTC technology, which is similar to the checkout scanner at the grocery store, and will provide about $1 million to test it in an Oregon recycling plant.
"There's a very good chance this is a technology that is going to revolutionize the industry," said Susan Moore, a spokeswoman for the council.
The machine, made by privately-held Magnetic Separation Systems of Nashville, Tenn., sorts more types of plastics than today's machines at a faster rate and with fewer workers.
Right now, most plastic recycling plants have 10 people picking just two types of plastic jugs and bottles off a conveyor belt at a rate of 500 to 600 pounds per hour.
The computer-aided machine needs just two operators to sort nine types of plastic at a rate of 1,250 pounds an hour, the council says. The machine's scanners first identify the plastic by searching out its three key features: color, resin type, and "optical density," whether clear, translucent or opaque.
It then activates a series of air jets that push the container into one of nine chutes, where it can be shredded and baled for future use. The recycled fibers are used in a wide variety of applications from carpets to clothing.
The two most popular resins are PET (polyethylene terephthalate), the stuff of which soda bottles are made, and HDPE (high-density polyethylene), the raw material for milk and laundry jugs. PET and HDPE account for more than 90 percent of all plastic bottles.
Most recycling plants concentrate on these two resins. Workers placed alongside conveyor belts pick out soda, milk, and laundry bottles from a stream of trash.
Aside from the fact that it's backbreaking and dangerous, the hand- sorting process is also slow. The new machine aims to speed it up and give recyclers the option to go after seven other types of plastic as well.
?3 The demonstration project will be From Page 11C
conducted at the Garten Foundation in Salem, Ore., a nonprofit recycler.
Unlike most other states, Oregon until now has lacked the ability to recycle any plastic other than milk jugs.
"Now," said Red Cavaney, the plastic council's chief executive officer and president, "residents and businesses can include more types of plastics in their recycling programs."
Industry officials say the test won't work unless communities start feeding the Garten plant with more plastic. "The real question is: Are the communities going to deliver the materials?" said Ms. Moore, the council spokeswoman.
Why is the council, which is funded by plastic makers, encouragingpeople to recycle the old stuff?
Recycling is good for the industry, Ms. Moore says, because it helps convince people that plastic isn't just a throw-away material harmful to the environment. A more positive image could head off restrictions down the road, she explained.
"If the consumer wants to recycle, then it's in our interest to meet that demand," she said.