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Post-shredder technology: Light at the end of the tunnel
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Results of plastics treatment
With the help of this separation technique it was possible to recover the following single-variety plastics for further treatment from the 67.46 tons of metal-bearing mixed plastics: PP (2.33 t), PE (2.98 t), ABS (2.50 t), and PS (6.71 t). Furthermore, 20 tons of a product containing polyolefin for use as a reducing agent in foundries was also recovered.
Chart: Scholz AG
Apart from approximately 1.35 tons that were lost during the treatment process, the only fraction actually remaining was one of 31.59 tons of chlorinated plastics with a density of > 1.25 g/1.50 cm3. The fluctuating chlorine content from three to eight per cent in this remaining fraction originates from PVC-bearing plastics that were installed in the vehicles. The chlorine content of this fraction is too high to allow its disposal in conventional waste incineration plants. For this reason these wastes still have to be destroyed.
However, compared to the original vehicle input of 761 tons, that only amounts to approximately four per cent of the total. Scholz AG intends to invest in the sink-swim technology in order to offer the recovered defined plastics on the market. Apart from Galloo Plastics, another possible internationally operating purchaser could also be MBA Polymer. Now the company wants to subject the chlorinated plastics to further treatment. Volker Grunert, responsible for post-shredder technology at Scholz, told RECYCLING magazine that the company is planning to invest in pyrolysis equipment in order to further treat this fraction too.
Chart: Scholz AG
The large-scale test provides ample proof that the currently valid recycling quotas are being adhered to, the two companies declared in a joint press statement. The material quota, which currently stands at 80 per cent, was fulfilled with 87.32 per cent and the legally required total recycling quota of 85 per cent was achieved with 97.59 per cent (with reference to the empty weight of the vehicles used in each case). A total of 564.90 tons of metal was recovered, a proportion of 78.59 per cent of all materials installed in the vehicles. Thus it was possible to recover 100 per cent of all metals used in the vehicles in electric steel plants and by means of copper and aluminium secondary metallurgy.
A call to policy-makers: abandon quotas
The substitute fuels generated were energetically recycled in waste incineration plants. A further reduction of the Cu fraction will also make it possible to use them for firing cement works in future. However, in order to continue using the recycling methods currently being explored it is necessary, for instance, to officially recognise the use of plastics as raw materials in furnaces throughout the EU after the new waste framework directive takes effect. Thus there is an urgent need to align new waste legislation requirements with those already existing. The joint press statement also requests a political debate as soon as possible as to whether quotas in the product-related regulations such as the end-of-life vehicle directive, the ElektroG or the battery directive are at all still necessary. Quotas have to be verified with a considerable amount of administrative effort.
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