CHE.04 – Enhancing Plastic Recycling Layer by Layer

• Safa Ali
• Giselle Cuevas
• Rija Firoz
• Angelica Seda
• Kathleen Sweeney

The goal of our project is to increase circularity in multilayer film plastic production by designing a specialized plant to recycle multilayer plastic waste. Multilayer plastic consists of distinct layers of different polymers specially selected to improve the performance of the material. Globally, 100 million tons of multilayer thermoplastics are produced each year with no conventional method established for recycling. Currently, combustion with energy recovery and landfill are the widespread waste disposal options. However, both options are unsustainable in the long term and therefore a better alternative must be provided to address current and future environmental challenges. Solvent-target recovery and precipitation (STRAP) is a newly developed technique by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to recycle multi-layer film plastics. The STRAP technique consists of a series of selective dissolution and precipitation steps resulting in recovery of each pure polymer layer. This technique was performed at laboratory-scale; however, this process has not been widely implemented. In this project, a commercial scale plant was designed to produce 10,000 tons per year of pure polyethylene (PE), ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from post-industrial multi-layer rigid film waste by utilizing the STRAP technique. The multilayer plastic waste is obtained from Amcor Rigid Packaging facilities across three Illinois locations: Batavia, Itasca, and Chicago.