A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

A method for recycling packaging wastes, referred to as first articles, made of PET or polyolefins (PO), that can be decolored in accordance with the key-locker principle, and second articles made of PET or PO, comprising the steps: (a) pre-sorting the first and second articles, (b) pre-washing the articles, (c) comminuting the articles to form flakes, (d) washing the articles, (e) dewatering and drying the flakes, (f) flake sorting, (g) extrusion, (h) solid-state polycondensation (SSP) in the case of PET wastes, or (i) decontamination in the case of PO wastes. The first articles are separated from the second articles by optical sorting and are decolored separate from the second articles in a decoloring step (j) by a reagent referred to as a key. The first decolored articles are temporarily stored (m) after step (j). After being stored, the first articles are fed to separate steps (g) and (h) or (i).

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.

Disclosed herein is a mobile plastic recycling system mounted in a vehicle. The system is configured to process a plastic article and make it into thermoplastic items. The mobile plastic recycling system includes a plastic recycling apparatus and a power supply apparatus that are electrically coupled with each other; the system also includes a vehicle configured to carry and transport the power supply apparatus and plastic recycling apparatus.

A method for manufacturing a play-of-color article includes the steps of: (a) providing a first mixture that contains a solvent and a plurality of functionalized colloidal particles; (b) replacing the solvent of the first mixture with a polymer solution that contains polymers, thereby obtaining a second mixture; (c) adding an initiator to the second mixture to obtain a third mixture, followed by injecting the third mixture into a mold and disturbing the third mixture, so that the third mixture is formed with a pattern; (d) leaving the third mixture to stand, so as to allow the functionalized colloidal particles therein to self-assemble to form a crystalline arrangement, thereby obtaining a fourth mixture; and (e) subjecting the polymers in the fourth mixture to a cross-linking reaction, thereby obtaining the play-of-color article. A play-of-color article manufactured by the method, and a play-of-color product including the play-of-color article are also provided.

A method for manufacturing pellets from polymer, comprising: (1) melting polymer flakes in a first section of a melt processing unit to create a first single stream of polymer melt; (2) separating the first single stream of polymer melt into multiple streams of polymer melt by means of a separation element; (3) passing the multiple streams through a multiple stream section of said melt processing unit and exposing the multiple streams to a pressure within the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit as the multiple streams pass through the multiple stream section; (4) recombining the multiple streams into at least one combined stream of polymer melt; and (5) cooling the polymer melt and forming said pellets from the at least one combined stream. The intrinsic viscosity of the at least one combined stream may be determined and, in response, the chamber pressure within the multiple stream section adjusted.

A process for removing contaminants from a fiber reinforcement material, the process comprising: (a) feeding a fiber reinforcement into a heated vessel, (b) passing the fiber reinforcement through the heated vessel, (c) heating a source of fluid medium, (d) feeding the heated fluid medium from (c) into the heated vessel having a passageway in the heated vessel for allowing the heated fluid medium from (c) to enter into the heated vessel, (e) passing the heated fluid medium through the heated vessel; wherein the heated vessel has a passageway for allowing the heated fluid medium from (c) to exit the heated vessel, and (f) contacting the fiber reinforcement passing through the heated vessel with the heated fluid medium passing through the heated vessel such that any contaminants present in or on the fiber reinforcement is sufficiently reduced to provide a purified fiber reinforcement exiting the heated vessel.

A method for the production of granulate suitable for the production of extrusion-blow-molded hollow bodies, comprising: sorting by type, washing, and comminuting PET articles originating from a post-consumer collection of plastic packaging, removing contaminants from the PET articles, premixing PET material from various types of the sorted PET articles so that a Trouton ratio of mixed PET material at a shear rate of 50 to 200 s.sup.?1 is less than 4, drying the PET material, melting the dried PET material, pressing the PET material through a filter, dividing the PET material into individual melt streams, cooling and solidifying the melt streams in a water bath and separating the solidified melt flows into pellets, wherein the pellets have an intrinsic viscosity of 0.5 to 0.75 dl/g, crystallizing the pellets, and drying and condensing the crystallized pellets in a solid-phase polycondensation reactor until they reach an intrinsic viscosity of 1.0 to 1.7 dl/g.

A decontamination bath for decontaminating plastic articles including a contaminant is provided, wherein the decontamination bath includes water, a non-polar organic solvent component, optionally an anionic and/or non-ionic surfactant, a resoiling inhibitor, and an alkaline agent or an acidic agent for adjusting the pH of the decontamination bath, wherein the amount of the non-polar organic solvent component in the decontamination bath is 0.1 wt % to 25 wt % based on the total weight of the decontamination bath, and wherein the decontamination bath comprise the alkaline agent and the pH of the decontamination bath is 8, or wherein the decontamination bath comprise the acidic agent and the pH of the decontamination bath is 6. A method for decontaminating a plastic article using the above decontamination bath is also provided.