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To wipe out toxic contaminations from plastic packages that were in contact with hazardous liquids and materials, the triple washing and drying method is widely used. After washing, the plastic waste is commonly recycled through extrusion process. The existing practice is far from perfect as it consumes huge amounts of water, energy and chemicals while generating a lot of contaminated water to be purified in its turn. The resulting recycled plastic is of rather poor quality and thus limited in use.
Under the LIFE EXTRUCLEAN project a much more effective technology has been developed in around 3 years. Several companies (AIDIMME technology centre, ARVET association of exporters of processed products, ACTECO and ENPLAST) coordinated by AIMPLAS and co-funded under the EU LIFE programme managed to improve decontamination technology by using sc-CO2 (supercritical carbon dioxide) at the extrusion stage. They have also succeeded in making the preliminary washing stage less resource-demanding. Thus the resulting recycled material is much cheaper and is suitable for a wider range of applications.
About EU Life programme
The LIFE is the EU's funding instrument for the activities reducing environmental and climate impacts. It first started in 1992 and is divided into multiannual phases, managed by the European Commission.
About AIMPLAS
AIMPLAS (Association of Investigation in Plastic Materials and Associated) is based in Valencia, SPAIN. It is a technology centre supplying a wide range of services and solutions to plastics companies.
