Rapid discrimination of plastic packaging materials using MIR spectroscopy coupled with independent components analysis (ICA)

Journal Article · Sat Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WASMAN.2014.06.015· OSTI ID:22436818

Kassouf, Amine ^[1]; Maalouly, Jacqueline ^[1]; Chebib, Hanna ^[1]; Ducruet, Violette ^[2]

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1. ER004 “Lebanese Food Packaging”, Faculty of Sciences II, Lebanese University, 90656 Jdeideth El Matn, Fanar (Lebanon)
2. INRA, UMR1145 Ingénierie Procédés Aliments, 1 Avenue des Olympiades, 91300 Massy (France)

Highlights: • An innovative technique, MIR-ICA, was applied to plastic packaging separation. • This study was carried out on PE, PP, PS, PET and PLA plastic packaging materials. • ICA was applied to discriminate plastics and 100% separation rates were obtained. • Analyses performed on two spectrometers proved the reproducibility of the method. • MIR-ICA is a simple and fast technique allowing plastic identification/classification. - Abstract: Plastic packaging wastes increased considerably in recent decades, raising a major and serious public concern on political, economical and environmental levels. Dealing with this kind of problems is generally done by landfilling and energy recovery. However, these two methods are becoming more and more expensive, hazardous to the public health and the environment. Therefore, recycling is gaining worldwide consideration as a solution to decrease the growing volume of plastic packaging wastes and simultaneously reduce the consumption of oil required to produce virgin resin. Nevertheless, a major shortage is encountered in recycling which is related to the sorting of plastic wastes. In this paper, a feasibility study was performed in order to test the potential of an innovative approach combining mid infrared (MIR) spectroscopy with independent components analysis (ICA), as a simple and fast approach which could achieve high separation rates. This approach (MIR-ICA) gave 100% discrimination rates in the separation of all studied plastics: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polylactide (PLA). In addition, some more specific discriminations were obtained separating plastic materials belonging to the same polymer family e.g. high density polyethylene (HDPE) from low density polyethylene (LDPE). High discrimination rates were obtained despite the heterogeneity among samples especially differences in colors, thicknesses and surface textures. The reproducibility of the proposed approach was also tested using two spectrometers with considerable differences in their sensitivities. Discrimination rates were not affected proving that the developed approach could be extrapolated to different spectrometers. MIR combined with ICA is a promising tool for plastic waste separation that can help improve performance in this field; however further technological improvements and developments are required before it can be applied at an industrial level given that all tests presented here were performed under laboratory conditions.

• OSTI ID: 22436818
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Vol. 34, Issue 11; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY
RADIOCHEMISTRY AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
COLOR
ENERGY RECOVERY
ENVIRONMENT
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
INFRARED SPECTRA
PACKAGING
POLYESTERS
POLYETHYLENES
POLYPROPYLENE
POLYSTYRENE
PUBLIC HEALTH
RECYCLING
RESINS
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SORTING
SPECTROMETERS
THICKNESS
WASTES