Use of froth flotation to separate PVC/PET mixtures

Recycling is an important activity in the minimization of waste that result s from human activities. The idea re-using this waste has increased during the last decades due to environmental, economics and social factors. In the United States, 75 billion pounds of plastic are produced every year. Unfor tunately, the majority of this plastic ends up in landfills where its decom position process can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years. The United States c urrently recycles about 5% of its post-consumer plastic waste; however, as much as 55% could be recycled if economically viable methods can be develop ed to collect and process waste streams that contain at least 50% thermopla stic materials. Froth flotation is the cheapest and most extensively used p rocess for the separation of chemically similar minerals, and to concentrat e ores for economical smelting. Flotation has a reduced cost compared to ot her separation operations. In this work, froth flotation was used to treat PVC and PET mixtures. The parameters studied are reagents, pH, conditioning time and particle size. The results show a yield of 99.3% pure PVC separat ed from PET. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.