Innovation in sorting mixed plastics << Back to Main News Page Added: Monday, 15 September 2008 A plastic bottle sorting plant which is also capable of sorting some mixed plastics was opened by J&A Young (Leicester) Ltd earlier this month. The plant, at South Normanton, is capable of sorting 78,000 tonnes of plastic bottles and some mixed plastics each year - collected from local authorities, large national supermarkets and small industrial businesses. It is the first plant of its kind to be able to sort mixed plastics on a large scale. The facility is able to recycle HDPE, PET, polypropylene, polystyrene and PVC. It also has the ability to divide HDPE and PET by colour into natural, blue tint, blue, green and mixed before they are rebaled and sold on. At the site, baled plastics are put through a rigorous sorting process, which removes any contaminants and divides the material by polymer type and colour using TiTech sorting technology. A fast moving scanning sensor fitted over the conveyor belt identifies materials, shapes, textures and colours in a split second, which allows it to identify the plastic type or colour. Once this part of the process is complete, the plastic is blown onto a second transport system using high power air jets, while any non-plastic items are brought to a third belt for further sorting or disposal. The end product, after being sorted by colour and type, is rebaled and readied for sale to plastic reprocessors. This new site is part of J&A Young's pledge to offer customers a closed loop recycling service, where producers are given back the plastics they recycle to use again in the food grade plastics process. The company is currently looking for potential locations for a further site, which would be capable of allowing them to wash, extrude and cool pelletized polymers before selling them on to plastics producers. Stuart Foster, senior project manager at Recoup, said: "The opening of this site is the most important development in the sorting of mixed plastics that we are currently seeing. Being able to sort plastics such as yoghurt pots and margarine tubs alongside mixed plastic bottles is a step in the right direction with regards to what we do with our mixed plastic packaging, and I hope to see further innovations stemming from this new plant." Rosie Barber, Commercial Manager of J&A Young, will be speaking at the Recoup October conference about the work J&A Young are currently doing with reprocessing mixed plastics. See the article above for more details on how to book your place. For more information about the new plant, go to http://jayplas.com