B. How is sorting for recycling working usually (in countries with a recycling system)?

Sorting has usually the following steps to separate plastics and metal:

1. Sieve: removes organic waste (e.g. maggots etc.) and small pieces like broken fragments of glass. Bottle caps won’t be separated.
2. Wind sifters: separates flexible packaging and flat objects from 3D-objects. A NIR-detector separates PE and other plastics subsequently.
3. Metal sorting, 2 steps: magnetic metals (Iron, tin) will be removed by a magnet, non-magnetic metals as aluminium will be removed by eddy current separator.
4. NIR (Near infra-red): sorts plastics by polymer type. This works, because products reflect a specific light spectrum, which is specific for a certain type of polymer.

Important!: This is why products with large labels often can’t be identified, black and dark coloured products with the Carbon black pigment can’t be detected, because the colour doesn’t reflect the NIR-light.

Sorting of plastics depends on:

• shape – flexible or rigids
• material, e.g polymer type – PET transparent, PE, PP, mix, (PS, only in Germany, Austria, some parts of France)
• For PET: colour – transparent, mixed. Coloured or opaque PET won’t be recycled