Page 47 - Plastic News Issue August 2025
P. 47
COMPANY NEWS
age. The environmental impact is lower, and the
separated components have higher purity,” the
researcher emphasized.
As part of this research, Aimplas also optimized
existing separation technologies to increase ef-
ficiency based on the material mix obtained af-
ter delamination. This included various methods
such as NIR (near-infrared) separation, air-flow
density separation, and triboelectric separation.
“Once the different components of the multilay-
er material—PE, PET, and aluminum—are sepa-
rated, they can be reintroduced into the value
lamination, a combination of mechanical separa- chain as recycled film, for example, thus closing
tion techniques, and enzymatic recycling. These the loop. Alternatively, they can be used sepa-
approaches have enabled the efficient and sus- rately in the production of plastic items. With
tainable recycling of multilayer waste, allowing it the recycled polyethylene, and after an additive
to be reintroduced into the value chain or used process to modify its properties, we have man-
to produce new recycled plastic products.
ufactured plant pots as an example of circular
This work has been carried out within the frame- economy in the plastics sector,” said Fernández.
work of the RECIPLUS research project, funded In addition to physicochemical delamination,
by the Valencian Institute for Competitiveness Aimplas has also addressed multilayer waste re-
and Innovation (IVACE+i) through ERDF funds.
cycling through enzymatic delamination, which
Mireia Fernández, lead researcher in Chemical involves incorporating enzymes into the plastic
Recycling at Aimplas, explained: “Multilayer ma- material to enable its self-biodegradation. Fur-
terials are complex plastics commonly found in thermore, the enzymes have been enhanced
various industrial sectors such as food or chemi- through molecular biology to improve their per-
cal packaging, the pharmaceutical industry, au- formance.
tomotive, electronics, and construction. In the Acteco, a company specialized in comprehen-
RECIPLUS project, we have explored different sive waste management, recovery, and valorisa-
strategies to address the recycling of multilayer tion, and Cebimat Lab, a spin-off from the Jaume
structures using innovative technologies such as I University dedicated to studying material bio-
physicochemical delamination with supercritical degradation, have collaborated on this research.
fluids.”
The RECIPLUS project is part of the 2024 call for
To separate and purify the different compo- R&D projects in collaboration with companies,
nents of the multilayer structure, “we used aimed at technology centres in the Valencian
chemical solvents under supercritical fluid pres- Community, funded by IVACE+i and the ERDF.
sure and temperature conditions, which allows Source - https://www.recycling-magazine.com/
us to reduce processing time and solvent us-
August 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 47
