Recovery of water bottles plastic using tribo-electrostatic separation process

The recycling of plastic materials is considered nowadays as a major strategic issue, since several million tons of plastic are the subject of recovery and recycling. The consumption of plastics in African countries is continuously growing up and the need of low-cost recycling methods is becoming more pressing. The purpose of this paper is an experimental investigation for recycling of plastic waste from PET water bottles using the free-fall electrostatic separation device. Water bottles are manufactured with two kinds of plastic, PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE (High-density polyethylene), are first crushed into 2-3 mm size particles. Triboelectric charging of the granules was performed using a fluidized air device build-up with a plastic located between PET and HDPE in the triboelectric series. Due to the plate-shape of the particles, the free-fall tribo-electrostatic separator is efficient in terms of recovery and purity of the separated products.