Syensqo, the new firm incorporating Solvay’s plastic business, has partnered with sensor-based sorting technology provider Tomra to demonstrate that multilayer PVDC packaging waste can be successfully separated and sorted.
Polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) is used in food, beverage, and healthcare multilayer barrier packaging across the world. Solvay had previously demonstrated that its Ixan PVDC can be recycled without compromising the barrier performance of the material. However, the reliable identification of plastic waste with PVDC content at the sorting stage remained a key concern of plastic recyclers.
Now, Syensqo and Tomra have demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of separating and sorting multi-component packaging in which PVDC serves as a barrier layer.
The partners developed a joint set of experiments with multilayer samples of commercial packaging waste consisting of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and Syensqo’s Ixan PVDC.
The results showed that multilayer films containing PVDC can be separated from mixed plastic waste using industrial sorting equipment to achieve clean-grade polyolefin and PVDC recycling streams.
“The overall target of this project was to challenge major industry standards which claim that multilayer PVDC films cannot be sorted out of multilayer packaging structures,” explains Federico Baruffi, global marketing manager, speciality polymers, at Syensqo. “Our experiments have demonstrated the contrary and are sending a clear message to the packaging and recycling industry that it can be done, notably with good accuracy and repeatability using existing industrial technology,” he added.
Tomra combined its advanced optical and near-infrared detection systems to achieve a selectivity rate of more than 80% when sorting from post-consumer plastic mix and more than 95% when sorting from LDPE monolayer stream.
According to the partners, the results apply to markets that are currently generating multi-layer mixed plastic waste containing PVDC, such as shrink films in consumer and food packaging.
Now that the feasibility of sorting PVDC multilayer packing has been demonstrated, the recycling of PVDC comes one step closer to reality.