WASHING | TECHNOLOGY
High quality recyclate with flexible productivity are the aims of new developments and installations of washing and drying facilities. Ink removal is a focus area for some companies, reports Mark Holmes
De-inking raises quality of packaging recyclate
Washing and drying plays a crucial role in the plastics recycling process. New developments and installa- tions are targeting ink removal and other ways to provide high quality recyclate, as well as offering processing flexibility and ever higher throughputs. Sorema-Previero has developed a de-inking module in an advanced washing system for the removal of inks. De-inking is a treatment by which cured ink systems are removed from packaging waste to allow the printed plastic packaging to be recycled and reused in the manufacturing process. The company says that inks and coatings are an integral part of packaging but can represent a serious challenge when trying to enhance materials and to transform packaging waste into a resource. Nowadays, market demand is growing for high quality recycled material coming from post-indus- trial and post-consumer flexible and rigid packag- ing waste. This situation has highlighted the need for new recycling plants and processes for the economic removal of printing inks. To facilitate a high-quality product, inks must be
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removed down to a very low level. Inks that remain in the recycled material can alter the colour and/or the transparency of the material, create defects on the final product and degrade to form odour, gassing or migratable species. The flakes and granules contami- nated by ink residues are also of great concern in their reuse in new food contact packaging. Once inks are removed then the plastic can potentially be recycled back into its original application. Current technologies for the recycling of printed
waste rely on processes of thermal degradation of the inks in extrusion with their elimination during the degassing and filtration phase of the melt. However, as efficient as they may be, these pro- cesses are unable to eliminate high inks loads. These can remain in the recycled polymers with consequent limitations in the material’s reuse in new packaging. Sorema has therefore introduced a de-inking process upstream of the extrusion phase, which produces materials with minimal printing ink residues and allows the subsequent extrusion operation to produce a high-quality polymer.
Main image: Flakes at
washing plant in Kunststoff Recycling Grünstadt facility
� July/August 2022 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 31
IMAGE: KRG
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