Bottle Recycling Research Articles

Innovative Design of Plastic Bottle Recycling Box Based on ARM

Aiming at the problems of on-site plastic bottles recycling and the reuse of waste, the automatic recycling system was developed on the basis of ARM. As the main controller, ARM not only controls the mechanical system of the collector to recover and break plastic bottles, but also communicates with and rewards the user by the automatic reward system through the wireless network. The experimental prototype test results show: post treated fragments of plastic bottles are small, which are convenient to transport and take advantage of; the operation of recovery is easy, and the interface of man-machine interaction is friendly which is easy to expand functions.

<i>Recycling of PET Bottle by Microwave and Applied Recycling of Polyester Textile</i>

<i>Recycling of PET Bottle by Microwave and Applied Recycling of Polyester Textile</i>

An Investigation into the Advancement of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Beverage Bottle Recycling in Georgetown, Guyana

Improper disposal of waste has resulted in a number of risks to human health and the environment. This is compounded by the fact that PET beverage bottles are considered stock pollutants. This study was conducted in Georgetown, Guyana. A structured survey of 203 households, and interviews with local PET recyclers, beverage companies, and key informants in waste management were carried out. The study revealed that there is both a need to recycle PET beverage bottles and room for PET recycling to advance, under the right conditions.

Historical evolution and development of waste management and recycling systems—analysis of Japan's experiences

This paper comprehensively analyzes the historical evolution of waste treatment and recycling practices in Japan since 1950s when the rapid economic development started, particularly looking into societal background conditions, policy responses, and technological aspects in an integrated manner. Based on statistical data related to waste management and relevant documents, we discuss that Japanese waste management and policies evolved from reactive and end-of-pipe approaches that primarily focused on safe disposal and incineration to more integral and proactive policies with recycling practices. The most recent trend after the year 2000 is best characterized in the integration of two different governmental policies: i.e., realizing a sound material-cycle and low-carbon society. From the overall analyses, three key characteristics associated with waste management system are particularly highlighted: (1) reliance on incineration as a means to reduce waste volume, (2) material recycling with ambitious recycling targets for specific wastes, and (3) an integral resource management approach that stresses not only improvement in energy and material recovery but also an increase in resource productivity. We also discuss technological and system innovations related to waste management by exploring two specific cases of incineration system and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling. Regulations and incentives by governmental policies are found to have been effective in that they triggered the technological and system innovations necessary to achieve recycling targets. Japan's experiences on historical waste management and policy designs for technology and system innovations shall provide important lessons for other rapidly developing countries just facing increasing wastes volumes and a critical challenge of building sustainable waste management systems. It is indispensable to enhance international cooperation to share essential knowledge about waste management and recycling schemes.

PET bottle reverse logistics—environmental performance of California’s CRV program

Purpose Disposable beverage bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) stand in sharp contrast to many other disposable plastic packaging systems in the US for their high level of post-consumer recovery for recycling. This is due in part to container deposit programs in several US states, such as the California Redemption Value (CRV) program. We investigate the impacts of PET bottle recycling in the CRV program to evaluate its effectiveness at reducing environmental burdens. Methods We develop a life cycle model using standard process LCA techniques. We use the US LCI database to describe the energy production infrastructure and the production of primary materials. We describe the inventory and logistical requirements for materials recovery on the basis of state-maintained statistics and interviews with operators and industry representatives. We report inventory indicators describing energy, freight, and waste disposal requirements. We report several impact indicators based on CML and TRACI-2.0 techniques. We apply system expansion to compare post-consumer activities to produce secondary polymer against equivalent primary production. Results and discussion While bottle collection is distributed across the state, processing is more centralized and occurs primarily near urban centers. The average distance traveled by a bottle from discard to recovery is 145–175 km. Recycling requires 0.45–0.66 MJ of primary energy/L of beverage, versus 3.96 MJ during the pre-consumer phase. Post-consumer environmental impacts are significantly lower than pre-consumer impacts, with the exception of eutrophication. The results are robust to model sensitivity, with allocation of fuel for bottle collection being the most significant parameter. Curbside collection is slightly more energy efficient than consumer drop-off, and is subject to smaller parametric uncertainty. Recycling has the potential for net environmental benefits in five of seven impact categories, the exceptions being smog (marginal benefits) and eutrophication (increased impacts). Conclusions California’s decentralized program for collecting and processing PET bottles has produced a system which generates a large stream of post-consumer material with minimal environmental impact. The selection of a reclamation locale is the most significant factor influencing post-consumer impacts. If secondary PET displaces primary material, several environmental burdens can be reduced. Recommendations and perspectives Our results suggest that deposit programs on disposable packaging are an effective policy mechanism to increase material recovery and reduce environmental burdens. Deposit programs for other packaging systems should be considered.

マテリアルリサイクルの市場代替性に基づくライフサイクル評価：ペットボトルリサイクルのケーススタディ

マテリアルリサイクルの市場代替性に基づくライフサイクル評価：ペットボトルリサイクルのケーススタディ

Life-cycle assessment of domestic and transboundary recycling of post-consumer PET bottles

In recent years, besides being recycled domestically, a part of Japanese post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles have been exported to and recycled in mainland China. In this study, life-cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to compare domestic and transboundary recycling scenarios between Japan and China and disposal scenarios from the viewpoints of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and fossil resource consumption. The following 10 scenarios based on our field surveys were evaluated: Japanese post-consumer PET bottles are (i) recycled into polyester staple in Japan, (ii) recycled into polyester filaments in Japan, (iii) recycled into polyester clothes in Japan, (iv) chemically decomposed and recycled into bottle-grade PET resin in Japan, (v) chemically decomposed and recycled into polyester filaments in Japan, (vi)–(vii) recycled into polyester staple via two different flows in China, (viii) recycled into polyester clothes in China, (ix) incinerated and partly recovered as electricity in Japan, and (x) directly landfilled in Japan. In all the evaluated scenarios, the functional unit is the recycling or disposal of 1 kg of Japanese post-consumer PET bottles. The system boundaries range from waste collection by municipalities to the manufacture of recycled products that can be regarded as substitutes for virgin products, and a credit for the avoided production of equivalent virgin products is given to each scenario. The inventories of both foreground and background processes in Japan were quoted from published reports and databases. The actual conditions of PET bottle recycling that were obtained through field surveys in China were reflected to some inventories of foreground processes in China. The inventories of public electricity supplies in China were based on the national statistics, and the inventories of petroleum products, industrial water supply, and waste treatment are based on our field surveys in China. Other unknown inventories in China were substituted by corresponding inventories in Japan. The results showed that all the domestic and transboundary recycling scenarios had smaller GHG emissions and fossil resource consumptions than the incineration scenario and that the chemical recycling scenarios had larger GHG emissions and fossil resource consumptions than the other recycling scenarios. The landfilling scenario had the largest fossil resource consumption, while it was better than the incineration scenario and slightly better than the chemical recycling scenarios from the viewpoint of GHG emission. The robustness of the results was examined, and it was found that the differences in GHG emission and fossil resource consumption between the domestic and transboundary recycling scenarios, other than the scenarios including cloth-manufacturing processes in system boundaries, were sufficiently large to be robust against the variability of background parameters for electricity supplies. As for the variability against the substitutions between recycled products and virgin products, interchanging the producer countries of substituted virgin products decreases the GHG emissions and fossil resource consumptions of the domestic recycling scenarios, but increases those of the transboundary scenarios. When recycling systems between different countries are compared using LCA, it should be noted that the differences in background parameters have an impact on the environmental burdens of recycling and avoided manufacturing processes, and therefore, the result depends on the identification of the producer countries of the virgin products that are substituted by recycled products. However, it is practically impossible to identify in which country the manufacture of virgin products are avoided by recycling. Therefore, it is recommended that the results be presented according to the relationships between recycled and substituted virgin products as described in this paper.

Externalities from Recycling Laws: Evidence from Crime Rates

This paper tests whether laws that encourage bottle recycling and also increase the labor incomes of low-wage workers have the additional effect of reducing petty crime rates. A simple choice theory model of crime participation and labor supply suggests that low-wage workers may substitute time and effort away from illegal activity to legal and remunerative recycling activity. Between 1973 and 2001, eleven states and one city enacted bottle recycling laws, and this paper exploits the variation in the year of implementation of the bottle laws to measure and test for any reduction in crime rates. The results show that city-level petty crime rates in bottle law states are on average 11% lower than city-level petty crime rates in non–bottle law states. Although the primary positive benefits of recycling income go to low-income individuals, the unexpected secondary benefit of lower crime rates affects both high- and low-income individuals. (JEL Q50, K40)

Export of Recyclable Materials and the Japanese Recycling System: The Case of Used Plastic Bottles

In recent years, the increased export of recyclable materials from Japan to Asia, particularly to China, has raised questions regarding Japanese recycling system for containers and packaging, which had assumed no transboundary movement of these materials when first implemented. Facing significant outflow, the Japanese government added the policy to the revised law to encourage local governments to transfer used plastic bottles to designated recyclers who process them for domestic manufactures of final products. However, it is questionable whether such a policy is beneficial as well as sustainable. This study attempts to provide an answer to this question by constructing a simple model of plastic bottle recycling and conducting a positive as well as a normative analysis of the export of recyclable materials in the context of increasing import demand and international market fluctuation.

Histogram of Intensity Feature Extraction for Automatic Plastic Bottle Recycling System Using Machine Vision

Currently, many recycling activities adopt manual sorting for plastic recycling that relies on plant personnel who visually identify and pick plastic bottles as they travel along the conveyor belt. These bottles are then sorted into the respective containers. Manual sorting may not be a suitable option for recycling facilities of high throughput. It has also been noted that the high turnover among sorting line workers had caused difficulties in achieving consistency in the plastic separation process. As a result, an intelligent system for automated sorting is greatly needed to replace manual sorting system. The core components of machine vision for this intelligent sorting system is the image recognition and classification. In this research, the overall plastic bottle sorting system is described. Additionally, the feature extraction algorithm used is discussed in detail since it is the core component of the overall system that determines the success rate. The performance of the proposed feature extractions were evaluated in terms of classification accuracy and result obtained showed an accuracy of more than 80%.

社会エネルギー消費量を指標としたPETボトルリサイクルのLCA解析

社会エネルギー消費量を指標としたPETボトルリサイクルのLCA解析

Education and Relationship with Community through Recycling of PET Bottle

Education and Relationship with Community through Recycling of PET Bottle

Treatment techniques for the recycling of bottle washing water in the soft drinks industry

The soft drink production is an important sector in the manufacturing industry of Mexico. Water is the main source in the production of soft drinks. Wastewater from bottle washing is almost 50% of the total wastewater generated by this industry. In order to reduce the consumption of water, the water of the last bottle rinse can be reused in to the bottle pre-rinse and pre-washing cycles. This work presents the characterization of the final bottle washing rinse discharge and the treatability study for the most appropriate treatment system for recycling. Average characteristics of the final bottle wash rinse were as follows: Turbidity 40.46 NTU, COD 47.7 mg/L, TSS 56 mg/L, TS 693.6 mg/L, electrical conductivity 1,194 microS/cm. The results of the treatability tests showed that the final rinse water can be used in the pre-rinse and pre-washing after removing the totality of the suspended solids, 80% of the COD and 75% of the dissolved solids. This can be done using the following treatment systems: filtration-adsorption-reverse osmosis, or filtration-adsorption-ion exchange. The installation of these treatment techniques in the soft drink industry would decrease bottle washing water consumption by 50%.

Point-of-sale glass bottle recycling: indoor airborne exposures and symptoms among employees

Aims: To assess the impact of newly introduced point-of-sale glass bottle recycling on indoor air quality and employee health. Methods: Airborne exposures and both chronic and acute respiratory and somatic...

Combination of sink–float separation and flotation technique for purification of shredded PET-bottle from PE or PP flakes

In this contribution, the separation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)–polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)–polypropylene (PP) mixtures was studied in order to improve the grade of the raw input used in PET bottle recycling. First, PET bottles and their caps (made of PE or PP) were shredded and the floatability of each polymer was tested. Even with the addition of the wetting reagents dodecylamine acetate (DAA) or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), the results did not suggest that the required 99.995% purity of PET plastic could not be achieved by floatation. Second, the mixtures were separated with a sink–float process using a drum separator. Finally, as the required purity of PET could not be obtained by either technique alone, a system utilising a combination of the two processes was developed. This system easily achieved the desired PET grade. At last, some sink–float experiments were performed with a medium of magnesium sulphate (dense medium separation).

Interglas Technologies feels effects of downturn

An iron mining residue was used as generated (R) or modified to produce heterogeneous catalysts for the Fenton reaction. The residue (R) was thermally treated at 600 °C under reducing atmosphere of CH4 (R-CH4) or impregnated with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) powder waste (from bottle recycling) and treated under inert N2 atmosphere at 600 °C to produce a R-PET composite. The R is mainly composed of SiO2, hematite (α-Fe2O3) and goethite (FeOOH) whereas the R-CH4 present a reduced iron phase of wustite (FeO). The R-PET is composed of carbon islands (≈10 wt.% of carbon content) dispersed over the oxides matrix. A partial iron reduction (Fe3+ → Fe2+) occurred during the thermal decomposition of PET thus forming magnetite (Fe3O4). Catalytic tests for H2O2 decomposition showed that the modified catalysts (R-CH4 and R-PET) presented increased activity compared to pure R, possibly due to the presence of reduced iron phases, and the reaction follows a radical mechanism. The catalysts were very active for dye oxidation (methylene blue and rhodamine B) through heterogeneous Fenton and the emergent contaminant, the paracetamol drug, especially R-CH4 (MB removal > 62%, RhB and PRC > 90%). The catalysts (mainly the R-CH4) can be recovered and reused for at least 5 reaction cycles.

Product Quality of Recycled Food Grade PET from a Bottle to Bottle Recycling Process

Retaining food grade quality is essential for a bottle to bottle PET recycling process. A PET recycling process comprising reactive extrusion of bottle flakes under vacuum followed by solidstate polycondensation to again increase the viscosity to the required value of bottle blowing has been investigated in detail applying a comprehensive reaction model. Quality parameters like viscosity and content of carboxyl end groups and vinyl end groups (potential acetaldehyde) have been calculated for different process conditions. The recycling process is assessed under consideration of the requirements of the food packaging industry.

Dissolution/reprecipitation: A model process for PET bottle recycling

AbstractA dissolution/reprecipitation route was followed for the recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Model experiments on virgin material, either in the form of pellets or blow‐molded bottles, are presented. The process proposed comprises dissolution of the plastic in an appropriate solvent, reprecipitation by using a nonsolvent, thorough washing of the material obtained, and drying. The solvent mixtures involved are separated by fractional distillation for further reuse. N‐Methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NMP)/n‐octane + n‐hexane proved to be a particularly effective solvent/nonsolvent system. Further investigation was focused on the effect of the sample history through successive recycling cycles. The recycled material was evaluated in terms of molecular weight, crystallinity, and grain‐size analysis, resulting in an excellent quality, competing with the virgin grade. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 81: 91–95, 2001

An Unusual Case of Organophosphate Intoxication of a Worker in a Plastic Bottle Recycling Plant: An Important Reminder

A young man was sent to our emergency unit because he had suffered from vomiting and cold sweating for 2 days. At the time he was admitted, he had no acute abdominal pains or gastrointestinal symptoms, and a physical examination revealed nothing but a faster heart rate and moist, flushing skin. The patient had worked for 6 years at a plastic bottle-recycling factory, but none of his co-workers had the same symptoms. Nevertheless, because the plant also recycled pesticide bottles, we suspected organophosphate pesticide intoxication. The patient's plasma acetylcholinesterase level was checked, revealing 1498.6 microU/L (normal range: 2,000-5, 000) on the first day and 1,379 microU/L on the second day. Upon questioning, the patient recalled that one of his shoe soles had been damaged and that his foot had been wet from walking all day in rain collected on the factory floor on the day that his symptoms first occurred. We conducted a study in the change of preshift and postshift acetylcholinesterase levels among six of his co-workers on a rainy day. We used the Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare the preshift and postshift plasma acetylcholinesterase levels; no significant difference was revealed (p = 0.600), leaving contamination via the damaged shoe sole suspect. We reviewed the literature on organophosphate intoxication; pesticide bottle-recycling factories were reported to be at a low risk of organophosphate toxicity in the working environment. However, because the potential risk of intoxication is still present, protective equipment such as clothing, gloves, and water-proof shoes should be worn, and employees should be educated on the potential risks.

It Computes When Young Adolescents Teach Senior Citizens

Prior to twentieth century rather limited pace of social and technological change insured a level of continuity between one's childhood and adulthood. While youth of every culture may question wisdom of elders, in a world marked by consistency, development of very similar intergenerational values was almost routine. The advent of twentieth century significantly changed this historic generational pattern. There is a profound difference between twentieth century and all previous periods of human history. The exponential pace of technological and social change during twentieth century has led to a world that Alfred North Whitehead described as the first period in human his tory in which it could not be assumed that each gener ation will live in an environment substantially similar to that of preceding (Whitehead, 1929/1967, pp. 18-19). One of significant results of this phenomenon is a separation of generations into groups that do not communicate or relate as well as has historically been case. Whether we view this separa tion as merely a generation gap, or agree with Longstreet and Shane (1993) when they describe it as an intragenerational disjuncture, overall result is same. People of different generations lead separate lives, often with little or no interaction or communica tion between youth and senior citizens. With soci etal transition from extended and nuclear family to single parent family, many school-age children find that they have little, if any, opportunity to interact with senior citizens, including their own grandparents. Recognizing this intergenerational phenomenon, coupled with a desire to involve students in meaningful community service, led faculty of Hellgate Middle School to develop a middle school community service program. While many schools have attempted to involve students in community service related activities such as aluminum can and bottle recycling or adopt-a-highway projects, these activities often fail to communicate to student participants a sense that they are really pro viding community with a significant service. Rather, understood message is often that this is a helpful, but undignified, way to keep students busy. It is viewed as a kids' project, and it carries little of satisfaction associated with truly significant social contributions. The teachers and administrator of Hellgate Middle School in Missoula, Montana, wanted to couple understanding of useful community service with a pro gram that would help students to establish connec tions with senior citizens of Missoula. Like many intermediate schools Hellgate Middle School is a program in transition. This former junior high school, originally called Hellgate Upper Elementary, is part of an independent elementary school district. Located in western Montana, Missoula has a population of approximately 45,000 people and is served by a newly unified K-12 school district. Missoula County has a population of 82,000 and is served by 12 public independent elementary districts and 9 private schools. Like most of other 11 independent ele mentary districts, Hellgate was originally created to serve an outlying agricultural area. While Hellgate campus is still surrounded by agricultural land, urban sprawl from Missoula has grown out from city center toward Hellgate area. Hellgate Elementary School District has a total stu dent population of 1,221, with 429 attending 6-8