In the context of increasing waste generation and packaging it appears that Japan and several EU countries are ahead in providing best practises and solutions that enhance solid waste management and circular economy. However, the final fate and effects for the value chain of the recovered materials are often uncertain, especially since relevant volumes of recovered materials are manged in 'waste-to-energy plants'. Likewise, the sustainability and environmental effects of actual solutions need to be discussed based on the reliability of existing recycling markets, whereas the latter was significantly impacted during the financial crises in 2008, and may presently being affected due to the recently announced import ban for plastic packages / waste by China.
Michael Jansen published a helpful document with the yields per type of sorting machine commonly used in sorting facilities for lightweight packaging waste. Understand that there is no single answer here. Although sorting facilities have a general set-up there is a large variation in the precise set-ups used. On top of that, policy options related to settings of the sorting machines have major impacts on the outcomes. So, they are flexible businesses that can be tweaked towards cheaper sorting or better quality sorting quiet easily. Also, you can deduct the sorting-fates in the Netherlands in 2014 from our last publication.
Sorting handbook:, http://edepot.wur.nl/362985
Last publication: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WBAB,LlFO~WsW
Dear Ulphard van Velzen,
many Thanks for your quick and much appreciated feedback. Interesting publications and data and helpful for our research. Best wishes! Johannes Paul
I can add to Ulphard's answer with: (1) the review we published in 2015, which addressed both sorting of source separated and mixed streams, (2) a case study on German light-weight packaging sorting
(1) Article Central sorting and recovery of MSW recyclable materials: A ...
(2) Article Techno-economic assessment of central sorting at material re...
- Badges
- Science topic