Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
01/07/2015
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
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The rising price of plastic resins, pressed by constant oil price fluctuations on the international market, has stimulated plastics processors looking for plastic resins of lower cost and good quality.
The rising price of plastic resins, pressed by constant oil price fluctuations on the international market, has stimulated plastics processors looking for plastic resins of lower cost and good quality. Usually the price of recycled plastic is 40% lower than that of virgin resin. Therefore the replacement of virgin resin by recycled back cost reduction benefits and increased competividade.O increased supply of recycled plastic resins, collides with the shortage of plastic scrap available for consumo.A approval of environmental laws, responsible for generating companies collection and disposal of their waste, result in a positive impact on the supply of raw material for plastics recycling activity.
In the states of RJ and RS state laws in. 3369 and 9921 respectively, already regulated, responsible companies lube oil distributors and automotive additives, the collection and environmentally sound disposal of post-consumer packaging.
Data released by Plastivida, indicate that only 17.5% of the plastic produced in the country is recycled. The "bottlenecks" for the growth of the recycling industry, reside in post consumer plastic collection and the development of new recycling processes, able to process plastic scrap inadequate to existing processes.
The oil change locations (gas stations, exchange centers, car dealerships, etc.), Discard daily to the environment plastic bottles of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), after consumption, contaminated with lubricating oil and additives, used in the maintenance of motor vehicles.
The residual oil contained in these bottles, increases the plastic melt flow rate, making the process of recycling, and damaging the quality of recycled artifacts produced due to deformity and the presence of oil odor. To avoid these problems, it is necessary to develop technology for oil removal, and for the treatment of effluents generated in the recycling process.
The absence of a decontamination process, until recently, and the lack of environmental awareness, causes some recyclers process the bottles contaminated with oil, mixed with uncontaminated bottles. The portion not collected (the most voluminous) is sent to the areas of disposal of waste, along with urban waste, reducing the life of those areas, because the HDPE biodegradation time is more than 100 years.
The availability of suitable areas for the implementation of disposal of waste projects (landfills and dumps), has become a critical issue, due to urban expansion and to the demands of environmental legislation.
Besides the loss of HDPE, the disposal of these packaging on the environment is also worrying, the potential for contamination of water resources, caused by the oil contained in these embalagens.O oil dumped in the waters consumes oxygen in the biodegradation process, and hinders the passage of light , thus compromising the survival of aquatic species.
Lubricating oil extraction by hexane tests, performed on one-liter bottles, post-consumer, revealed the presence of 1% (by weight) of residual oil (average value) per vial. Based on the volume of lubricating oil sold in the country in 2003 (868.353m³), published by SINDICOM, it is estimated that in that year were consumed 29,177 tons. HDPE in the manufacture of packaging for lubricating oil. (Due to lack of information was not considered HDPE consumed in the manufacture of automotive additive packages).
The recycling of these packages through an environmentally clean process, result in the following gains: prevent about 292 ton of oil and 26.000ton HDPE (L = 10%), were designed to the environment, opening 403 to direct jobs recycling of bottles; reuse of 26.000ton of HDPE in the manufacture of plastic packaging of non-food or pharmaceutical uses, such as lubricating oil and automotive additives, cleaners, pesticides and plastics artifacts, such as electrical conduit, broom components, etc.
Based on the above-described earlier, this design alternatives studied to develop an environmentally clean recycling process economically viable, and to lubricating oil additives and automotive bottles.
In designed plant may also be processed separately, not contaminated with oil bottles, such as cleaning products (HDPE) and mineral water (polypropylene).
During the research the following alternatives were studied:
1) Cascade Extrusion: we used two extruders for granular plastic and remove the oil by evaporation and degassing. There was the complete removal of oil in the process. The bottles manufactured with the "pellet" produced odor and showed imperfections.
2) Oil Extraction solvent: milled flasks were washed with organic solvent to oil extraction. The process is efficient in oil removal, but was abandoned due to the high flammability and danger of the solvent;
3) Wash with detergent: the process was chosen because of efficient oil removal and reduced operational risk. It consists in washing the bottles with powdered detergent solution to remove oil. After separation of the plastic, the water-oil emulsion is treated by physical-chemical process. The treated water is recycled in the process and the solid residue (oil and impurities) is sent for incineration. The milled after rinsing and drying plastic is extruded to obtain "pellets" recycled, which are used either alone or blended with virgin resin for the manufacture of plastic articles.
Samples of recycled HDPE, Melt Index tests were performed (MFI), Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).
The results, compared to virgin material indicated that there was no degradation of at least a significant scale, which could impair the performance of different products manufactured from the recycled material produced by this recycling process.
The granular material was tested in the process of extrusion-blowing, the production of 20-gallon drums for lubricating oil, and 1 liter bottles of bleach.
On 1st test were used 30% recycled mixed shall virgin resin. The 2nd test was conducted with the use of 100% HDPE reciclado.Nos 2 tests, the packages produced were adopted in quality control tests.
Source: Environment Brazil
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.