Plastic Recycling Challenges 2021 – Magnetic Separation and Metal Detection

Effective management of plastics waste remains a challenge. Bunting magnetic separation and metal detection equipment greatly improves efficiency within plastics recycling operations. With the events of the COVID-19 pandemic creating a massive influx of plastic waste, it is more important than ever to prioritize effective and efficient methods of plastic recycling.

With each passing year, a greater and greater focus continues to be placed on environmental and recycling issues. After the events of 2020, recycling was not at the forefront of most people’s minds, yet waste management remained a critical concern. In order to remain compliant with recycling targets, particularly those being set by the European Union, many companies are still struggling to implement best practices for managing waste material. Despite continued activism in the political sphere, changes in the way waste is generated and managed remain sluggish.

Plastic Waste and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Plastic waste was the primary concern on environmentalist’s agendas throughout 2019. While 2020 was of course overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, single-use plastic waste consumption exploded as a result of the pandemic. Disposable plastic items such as restaurant take out containers, bubble wrap and plastic mailers used to fulfill online shopping purchases, and of course PPE such as gloves and face shields have all dominated the public sphere in 2020. As people refrained from making purchases or going out in person, plastic usage skyrocketed. Even environmentally conscious customers were discouraged from using reusable bags during grocery shopping trips, with many stores banning reusable bags out of fear of spreading disease.

In an special report published by Reuters in October 2020, Tony Radoszewski, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association was quoted as saying “Single-use plastics have been the difference between life and death during this pandemic…Hospital gowns, gloves, and masks are made from safe, sanitary plastic.”

While demand for plastic products in general has skyrocketed during the pandemic, demand for increased plastics recycling has not. In this same article, it states that “demand for recycled material from packaging businesses fell by 20% to 30% in Europe in the second quarter [of 2020] compared with the previous year.” The article explains this puzzling statistic by stating that because the economic slowdown slashed oil prices, it has become cheaper to produce new plastic than to invest in long-term solutions for recycling plastic products. The plastics industry as a whole has made significantly larger investments in producing virgin plastic products than in recycling existing plastic waste.

Recycling Targets

In order to advance efforts in plastic recycling and reach recycling target goals, investments must be made in new plastics recycling technology. In the United Kingdom and Europe, specific plastic waste targets have been implemented, namely a target that aims to recycle 50% of plastic packaging by 2025.

While similar initiatives are not as widespread in the United States, we still remain a member of a global economy and are subject to fluctuations in that economy. For example, China banned the majority of plastic waste imports in 2018, and the European Union is seeking to ban many single-use plastics items in 2021. Several states, including population hubs California and New York, have banned single-use plastic bags.

While legislation can be passed demanding that plastic waste material be reduced, reused, and recycled, these measures will ultimately fall short if plastics recycling processors are not armed with the proper equipment to facilitate effective plastics recycling.

Technological Developments

In order to effectively segregate, recycle, and reuse waste material, recycling plants must be outfitted with effective, reliable equipment. In plastics recycling, one of the primary problems recyclers face is plastic waste contaminated with metal. This compromises the purity of the plastic and can lead to other manufacturing equipment, such as injection molding machines, being damaged as a result of metal contamination. To facilitate improved metal removal in plastics recycling, Bunting offers a wealth of magnetic separation and metal detection products.

Products such as Bunting’s FF Drawer are essential for use within plastics processing facilities, where scrap plastic is often recycled to be repurposed within the facility itself. While most people think of plastic bottles for beverages as one of the main sources of plastic waste, there is a great deal of plastic within manufacturing facilities that also must be cleaned of metal before being repurposed.

In municipal recycling facilities, products such as eddy current separators are able to recover non-ferrous metals, such as flecks of aluminum, from plastic products such as single-serving coffee pods being recycled. It is also necessary to use large-scale magnetic separators, such as crossbelt magnets, to remove large metal waste pieces from plastic waste when processing bulk recycled material. Only after material has been effectively separated can it move on to specialist recycling companies. At these companies, Bunting supplies plastics recyclers with magnetic separation and metal detection equipment so that all metal—ferrous, non-ferrous, and stainless steel—is removed from plastic waste so that it can be blended with or repurposed as new, virgin plastic.

2021 Challenges

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, plastics consumption remains high. However, recycling targets have not gone away in spite of this, and environmental concerns about plastic waste remain pressing. Despite all of this, Bunting magnetic separation and metal detection products have been proven to facilitate an improved waste management and plastic recycling strategy. We invite you to contact us today to learn more about integrating our metal detection and magnetic separation products into your facility and improving your plastics recycling process.