TVK develops mixed plastic recycling tech... a first (Reuters)

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To: all < gaia-l@egroups.com >
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 09:17:07 -0400 (AST)
Subject: [gaia-l] TVK develops mixed plastic recycling tech

HUNGARY: May 12, 2000

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

BUDAPEST - Hungarian chemicals company TVK said on Thursday that it had developed what it claims is the first technology in the world for recycling mixed plastic waste.

TVK said existing methods were able to tackle only sorted materials.

"The technology worked out with more than 10 years of research makes mixed plastic waste, which had been good for nothing else but being burnt or deposited in dumps, suitable for new usage," TVK said in a statement.

The final product of recycling is a material named Syntumen-R, which can be used for various purposes in road building, in construction, in the energy industry and in metallurgy, TVK said.

"This will give a new meaning to selective waste collection as now almost all sorts of waste will be utilizable," TVK said.

The technology has been developed by Tamas Szekely, a professor and head of TVK's Research Centre, using the results of his basic research carried out at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), the company said. Patents for the technology are under registration in all industrialised countries in the world, TVK added.

Story by Sandor Peto

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE



-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Answers

From a friend, via e-mail, who doesn't mince words or like to post often...

[snip]

"can we say bullshit?

No details on the Hungarian process but the claim of being the first to be able to handle mixed plastics is just not true. More than five years ago a process using benzene at different temp, pressure was shown to be able to solvent a specific plastic, ie. #2 or #6. The solute was then drained off, the benzene recovered by distilation and condensation and reused for the next batch to be extracted, the plastic was left behind as pure polymer."

[snip]

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2000


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