The invention relates to a method for separating waste polyurethane foams, wherein for each polyurethane sample (1) of a supply stream (2) comprising polyurethane samples (1) from waste at least one respective spectrum (3) is recorded, wherein the at least one respective spectrum (3) is recorded by near-infrared spectroscopy, wherein each polyurethane sample (1) of the supply stream (2) is classified by a classification algorithm (5), which classification algorithm (5) is based on machine learning, based on the respective at least one spectrum (3) into a respective class (8a-e) of at least two classes (8a-e), wherein the supply stream (2) comprising polyurethane samples (1) is separated into at least two streams (11a-e) according to the classification into the respective class (8a-e) and wherein each class (8a-e) corresponds to a type of polyurethane. The invention also relates to a system for separating waste polyurethane foams.

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 expanded surface area extruder while maintaining a pressure within the expanded surface area extruder below about 25 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 that includes providing a polymer melt and separating the polymer melt from the extruder into at least eight streams. The multiple streams are exposed to a chamber pressure within a chamber that is below approximately 5 millibars. The streams are recombined into a single polymer stream and formed into bulked continuous carpet filament.

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 flakes through a PET crystallizer; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 18 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) 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 flakes through a PET crystallizer; (E) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 18 millibars; (F) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (G) 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 expanded surface area extruder while maintaining a pressure within the expanded surface area extruder below about 25 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 process for transforming a stream of MSW material into feedstock for an anaerobic digester and the resulting generation of biogas and other useful products includes the removal of one or more selected chlorine containing components and the retaining of substantially all paper components. At least 70% by mass of the incoming stream of MSW material is hydrolyzed and subsequently directed to the anaerobic digester.

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).

Polyethylene blend with defined CIELAB color.

A method for sorting flexible polyurethane foams including: a) providing two or more calibration samples of conventional flexible polyurethane foams, two or more calibration samples of high resilience (HR) flexible polyurethane foams, and two or more calibration samples of viscoelastic flexible polyurethane foams, and obtaining a mid-infrared (MIR) spectrum of each calibration sample; b) carrying out a spectral pre-processing of the spectra of all the calibration samples and, then a first PCA to define a first library; c) carrying out a spectral pre-processing of the infrared spectra of conventional and HR calibration samples and, then a second PCA to define a second library; d) obtaining the MIR spectrum of a sample of polyurethane foam and, based on the first and second libraries, classifying the sample of polyurethane foam as a conventional, HR or viscoelastic polyurethane foam, or as a foam that is neither a conventional, a HR or a viscoelastic polyurethane foam.