Methods for the recycling of carpet are disclosed that produce clean face fiber suitable for industrial use. The methods allow the recovery of face fiber material, for example a polyester or a polyamide, from carpets that includes a face fiber material and a backing material, and include the steps of heating the carpet to a temperature lower than the melting point of the face fiber material, but higher than the initial thermal decomposition temperature of the backing material, for a time and at a temperature sufficient to thermally decompose, pyrolyze, or oxidize at least a portion of the backing material, rendering the backing material friable, that is more friable than the untreated backing; and applying mechanical force to the carpet so as to liberate the friable backing material from the face fiber material.

A process for the extraction of one or more colour pigments from waste plastic in which a waste plastic feedstock is mixed with a solvent in a reactor having a shearing mechanism and the solvent is separated out and recycled in the process. The shearing mechanism provides high shear, high contact mixing so as to move the pigment to the surface of the plastic for contact with the solvent to give efficient colour pigment removal. Embodiments of reactors with shearing mechanisms are described. Environmentally friendly solvents are also described. The process gives highly sought after natural recyclate at a commercial scale.

Techniques recycle plastics in multiple successive process steps. A polymer, preferably a recyclable material, is melted using a discharge extruder, filtered using a first filter device under a positive pressure atmosphere, filtered and degassed using a degassing device, and discharged using a discharge extruder. The degassing device has at least one filter element and a vacuum chamber with a negative pressure atmosphere for filtering and degassing purposes, wherein the plastic melt can be conducted into the negative pressure atmosphere of the vacuum chamber through the filter element.

A method for separating composite materials and mixtures, in particular solid-material mixtures and slags, and to a device for carrying out said method. The method for separating composite materials and mixtures comprises the step of transporting the composite material or the mixture through a separating device. The composite material to be separated or the mixture to be separated is excited by mechanical impulses as it passes through the separating device and is thereby separated. The device (1) for carrying out the method comprises a drive unit (21) for driving a rotor element (32), which is connected to a bearing/shaft unit (22) and which is part of a rotor unit (31). The rotor element itself has at least one rotor tool (33) and each rotor tool has at least one rotor tool component (34) and is surrounded by a stator element (42), which is part of a stator unit (41). The stator element itself has at least one stator tool (43) and each stator tool has at least one stator tool component (44). The rotor element and the stator element are substantially cylindrical.

Methods and equipment for the recycling of carpet are disclosed that produce a clean fiber product suitable for industrial use. The methods allow the recovery of face fiber material, for example a polyester, polyolefin, or a polyamide, from carpets that includes a face fiber material, a polypropylene backing material, and an adhesive, and include the steps of mechanically impacting the carpet to break the bonds between the adhesive and the fibrous components, treating the fibrous components to remove adhesive granules from the fibrous components, and optionally separating the polypropylene backing from the face fiber. A clean adhesive/calcium carbonate product can also be produced from this process.

A waste management system, primarily intended to be for waste floating in water, though it can also be used on land. A shredding device will reduce the size of the particles of waste. Ocean water is removed by a drying device. The dried waste material is cryogenically frozen using liquid nitrogen or other suitable means. The frozen waste material is then pulverized and ground into a powder. The powder may then be sprayed into a gas-filled chamber and heated. Temperature, pressure and humidity are maintained within the chamber for more than one minute. Microwave or other radiation and catalysts may be used to enhance the process of extraction. The processed material is then removed from the chamber. Carbon and water may be recycled. The carbon may be used as fuel by the ship. Water may also be used by the ship or returned to the ocean in a non-toxic condition.

A coating system for the decoration of a recyclable plastic substrate. The coating system includes a primer layer and a decorative layer. The primer layer includes at least one coating which is made from at least one coating material having 60 to 80 wt.-% of at least one difunctional, alcoxylated acrylate monomer, 5 to 15 wt.-% of at least one acrylate oligomer, 5 to 15 wt.-% of at least one of at least one carbonyl-functional acrylate and at least one methacrylate oligomer or 5 to 15 wt.-% of at least one of at least one polyethylene glycol acrylate and at least one polyethylene glycol methacrylate, and 1 to 10 wt.-% of at least one photoinitiator, each of which are based on a total weight of the coating material.

A method of recovering structural members from a used absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet and an absorbent body between the front sheet and the back sheet, wherein at least one of the front sheet and the back sheet includes a film, and wherein the absorbent body includes an absorbent body material, may include swelling the used absorbent article with water, applying a physical shock to and disintegrating the swelled used absorbent article into at least the film and the absorbent body material, and separating the film and the absorbent body material.

A plant for recovering and treating residues from crushing scrap is provided. The plant includes a first plant part and a second plant part. The first plant part is provided with crushing and separation means configured to extract ferrous materials, non-ferrous metals and plastic materials from the residues from crushing. The separation means are provided with a granulator system configured to reduce, in dry mode and without pre-screening stages, the residues from crushing into a stream of granular material. The second plant part is provided with means to treat and size the plastic materials configured to transform the plastic materials into additive material to be used, in particular, in iron and steel plants such as blast furnaces, electric arc furnaces or suchlike. The means to treat and size the plastic materials includes a dry system for cutting and/or grinding the plastic materials.

An installation (1) and method for treating composite products (2) based on thermoplastic material(s) for recycling purposes, the installation at least comprising means (3, 4, 4′, 5, 6) for heating, for reducing size, for crushing and for separating, said means being arranged to form at least one line (1′) for treating and extracting material(s) to be reused, operating as a continuous or intermittent flow, and regulated if necessary. The installation (1) is characterised in that the means (3) for heating and reducing size comprise at least one heated screw mixer, the crushing means comprise at least one roll crusher (4, 4′) comprising two rolling rollers (7 and 7′) that are heated and set into rotation in opposite directions, the separating means (5, 6) comprise at least one macroscopic separating means (5) in the form of a device for discharging macroscopic polluting particles present in the output (3′), and the separating