Industrialized fine physical regeneration process and economic benefit assessment for recycling waste HDPE containers

Abstract

The production of waste HDPE containers is enormous, and its recycling and utilization is an inevitable trend to achieve sustainable social development. However, the engineering practice of recycling waste HDPE containers is still lacking. This study provides a detailed explanation of the principles of fine recycling for waste HDPE containers, and develops a set of physical regeneration processes. By combining visual recognition assisted sorting, alkali hot water washing, physical sorting, and regranulation processes, high-quality regenerated HDPE particles are prepared. Meanwhile, various real data (sample size 50–100) of the production line and products are tracked, statistically analyzed. The results show that regenerated HDPE particles have good physical properties, the ratio of HDPE particles containing aluminum foil and multicolored impurities are extremely low, and the ratio of HDPE particles containing black spots (d＞0.1 mm) is less than 1.61 × 10−2 wt% (mean). Economic benefit analysis shows that the gross profit of recycled HDPE particles is USD $312.05 per ton. The above conclusions prove the feasibility and progressiveness of this process for the regeneration of waste HDPE containers. Meanwhile, this study provides engineering technical guidance for the large-scale fine recycling and regeneration of waste HDPE containers.