Bio-based plastics in a circular economy: A review of recovery pathways and implications for product design

Bio-based plastics are attracting increasing attention due to their perceived sustainability and circularity. While enabling circularity by using renewable feedstocks, they still contribute to plastic pollution. Furthermore, their rapidly growing market will cause bio-based plastics to constitute significant fractions of plastic waste,...

Single-shot LIBS spectral quality for waste particles in open air

This work investigates the ability of LIBS to produce quality spectra from small particles of concrete demolition waste using single-shot spectra collected in open air. The 2–8?mm materials are rounded river gravel, green glass shards, and plastic flakes. Considered are focal length, air, moisture, laser energy, and laser incidence angle (LIA)....

Purification of post-consumer steel crap

Post-consumer steel scrap is often hand picked for contaminants such as copper to meet specifications of steelmakers. If the hand sorting capacity exceeds 20 tons scrap/h the efficiency generally becomes problematic, leaving 50% of the copper contaminants in the steel product. In response, new technologies are emerging that facilitate hand...