An automated process for separating and recycling a broad mix of waste material including industrial and commercial streams. The process begins by collecting the broad mix of waste material. Optionally, the broad mix of waste material is sorted to remove contamination from the broad mix of waste material. Next, the broad mix of waste material is coarsely shredded. Plastic film is removed from the broad mix of waste material, creating a stream of plastic film and a separate stream of dirty cardboard. Residual plastic is separated from the cardboard stream and included either in the plastic stream or in an independent third stream. The process yields separate streams of a film-rich recycled plastic and a clean recycled cardboard having a purity of at least about 95%. Also provided are a related system and at least one computer-readable non-transitory storage medium embodying software for performing the process.

The invention is a plastic bottle crusher that includes a vacuum nozzle creating suction to compress the bottle via a manual pump or electric motor and a series of cutting blades in order to chop and shred plastic bottles of multiple sizes. The invention also includes an excess water chamber as well as variable sized detachable sleeves based on bottle size with mechanical blades to remove bottle labels as well as a vertical guide to provide maximum compression for air removal, plastic preparation for recycling and placement of crushed bottles into a recyclable housing.

Provided herein is a method of recycling reactive prepolymers from additively manufactured articles or recovered coating material that comprises a crosslinked polymer formed from a single-cure resin comprising a reactive blocked prepolymer and a crosslinker, by forming and recovering a regenerated reactive prepolymer. Light-polymerizable resins, methods of making recyclable objects from such resins, and methods for sustainable manufacturing are also provided.

A method of recycling a mixed plastic waste comprising plastics having different melting temperatures includes conveying the mixed plastic waste through an extruder such that at least some of the higher melting point plastic is passes through the extruder without melting and is present in the extrudate as solid material.

Systems and methods are provided for making aggregate from comingled waste plastics. For example, there is provided a method of making a preconditioned absorptive resin aggregate, the method including: obtaining a supply of granulated mixed plastic waste treated with a preconditioning agent that comprises at least one of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide; mixing the supply of granulated mixed plastic waste treated with the calcium oxide preconditioning agent with one or more additives to form a plastic waste mixture, the one or more additives comprising pozzolans; hot extruding the plastic waste mixture to form an extruded product comprising waste plastic material; cooling the extruded product; and processing the extruded product to form an aggregate. Products incorporating such aggregates, such as, for example, lightweight construction blocks, are also provided. Also provided are methods of forming a waste plastics feedstock.

Crumb rubber obtained from recycled tires is subjected to a process involving phase reticulation induced sulfidic metathesis. The process utilizes a reactive component that interferes with sulfur bonds, assisted by exposure to a pulsed magnetic field. The resulting rubber, subjected to interlinked substitution, exhibits properties similar to those of the virgin composite rubber structure prior to being granulated, or other polymeric materials, and is suitable for use in fabricating new tires, engineered rubber articles, and asphalt rubber for use in waterproofing and paving applications.

Compositions and processes for the tertiary recycling of mixed plastic waste into a stable and homogeneous plastic feedstock material are provided. The processes and compositions allow for the tertiary recycling of unsorted, unwashed and unidentified mixed plastic waste, including waste mixtures comprising polymer macromolecules with different molecular weights and polymer chain lengths. The processes include the blending of a mixed plastic waste feedstock with a recycling composition and virgin carrier materials comprising at least one alluvium material.

A building system comprising at least one block of claim 1 and further including at least one mortarless side panel including a finished outside surface and at least one dovetail protrusion on an opposing surface for joining the side panel to the at least one blocks, and a connector on each end of the panel for joining the side panel to other side panels, and at least one top cap including a finished top surface.

A plastic composition consisting essentially of plastic matter, inorganic matter, and organic matter. The plastic composition has a notched izod impact above 12 J/m, a surface energy of at least 40 dyne/cm and, and when the plastic composition is subjected to injection molding, at least one of a tensile strength of above about 2.7 MPa, a tensile modulus of above about 600 MPa, a flexural modulus above about 690 MPa, a flexural strength above about 5.6 MPa, and a Charpy Impact above about 1.5 KJ/m2.

The present invention relates to a process for recycling a polyester film that includes comminuting a used polyester film to shreds, the used polyester film including a polyethylene terephthalate polymer, melting the shreds in a twin-screw or multi-screw extruder, filtering the melt, and pelletizing. The present invention further relates to a process for producing a biaxially oriented polyester film that includes melting PET pellets in an extruder, at least 10% by weight of the pellets having been obtained by the process of the invention for recycling a polyester film. The present invention further relates to pellets and to a biaxially oriented polyester film, obtained by the processes of the invention, and also to the use thereof.