Andrea Cabanes Gil

University of Alicante | UA · Departamento de Ingeniería Química

The plastic recycling sector in its transition to the Circular Economy model is facing numerous challenges such as multilayer films recovering, flexible plastics, low-quality recyclates, consumers safety, and bioplastics, among others. The demand for high quality recycled products is expected to increase due to social pressure and new legislation,...

While the annual European demand for polyolefins is 25 million tonnes, only 3 million tonnes of recycled polyolefins find their place in the market, despite collecting 15 million tonnes of post-consumer polyolefins every year. Brand owners of care products are showing their interest in using post-consumer recycled plastics for their packaging. Howe...

Plastic demand is continuously growing and, with it, the amount of plastic waste. The packaging industry is by far the largest source of single-use plastic products that, after use, end up in landfills and oceans. Mechanical recycling is the solution most widely implemented in the global industry and its effectiveness and reliability have been demo...

The demand for high quality recycled polymers in the European plastic industry is on the increase, likely due to the EU's Plastic Strategy intended to implement the circular economy model in this sector. The problem is that there is not enough recycled plastic in the market. In terms of volume, post-consumer plastic waste could be key to meet the c...

The establishment of recycling systems aiming at high-quality recyclates from post-consumer plastic waste are essential to avoid the waste of resources. One main impediment for introducing recyclates into the market is their unwanted odor. For this reason, this study aimed at determining if the collection strategy affects the odor profile of post-c...

Link: http://innoua.ua.es/Web/FichaOferta?pIdOferta=2775&language=en Method description: This procedure comprises the following stages: (i) separation and conditioning of plastic; (ii) shredding of plastic; (iii) chemical washing with surfactant; (iv) rinsing of plastic material; (v) mechanical drying; and, (vi) deodorization of plastic. This last...

The weaknesses of existing plastic waste management strategies lead to the pollution of the natural environment. Although around 75% of plastic litter come from developing countries, an important 25% is originated in western countries mainly due to the limited efficiency of the collection systems and low recycling rates. Global plastic production h...

Post-consumer plastic waste production exceeded 27 million tonnes in the EU countries by 2016. Although the rates of plastic waste recovery have improved in the last years (31.1 % recycling; 41.6 % energy source), 27.3 % of post-consumer plastics are still landfilled. This means that more than 7 million tonnes of plastics are yearly dumped into our...

Nowadays, most of the foodstuff packaging ends in the litter after one single use. This type of litter is currently representing 50 % of the worldwide plastic debris in the marine ecosystem. Although waste management is progressing and the plastics recycling sector is growing, still there is room to improve to protect the environment from plastic l...