Optical sorters detect PLA

Recycling Today, March, 2005

Research conducted by National Recovery Technologies Inc. (NRT), a designer of plastic mass-sorting technology, indicates that NatureWorks PLA can be segregated from PET bottles as part of a fraction that is already being removed by reclaimers using NRT infrared machines, according to a release by Cargill Dow.

NRT, based in Nashville, Tenn., has studied the sorting of polylactide (PLA) bottles using its existing system for sorting other plastics from PET at industrial feed-rates.

Derived fom annually renewable resources, NatureWorks PLA is marketed as an alternative to traditional, petroleum-based plastic materials manufactured by Cargill Dow.

The NRT findings are consistent with other studies performed by Nashville-based MSS in 2002 and TiTech VisionSort in Germany in 2004 using infrared technology.

"We are pleased to be getting validation from the recycling industry's leading sort system manufacturers that NatureWorks PLA can be separated from the post-consumer PET stream, and can likely be separated into its own stream when post-consumer amounts warrant such a move," says Brian Glasbrenner, business development manager, PLA bottles, for Cargill Dow. "We will continue to work with the appropriate associations and industry experts to evaluate the disposal impact of PLA in all waste management systems."