Marquage de produits et suivi de produits

How can we keep plastic off the oceans? How does plastic waste actually end up in the oceans?

Around 80% of the plastic that ends up in the oceans comes from rivers, which is why many initiatives focus on intercepting plastic waste before it reaches the sea. Other organizations, mostly of a local nature, concentrate on cleaning up beaches, removing the plastic waste that has washed up on them.
In contrast, the collection of plastic in the open sea is technically very challenging. Various initiatives remove plastic from garbage patches, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. However, this proportion is still relatively low compared to the quantities of plastic waste collected from the rivers.

Once the plastic waste has been collected and packed, it is forwarded to the recycling plant in compliance with supply chain controls. The process here is similar to the usual plastic waste processing: pre-sorting, shredding, washing, drying and fine sorting of the flakes before they finally enter the extruder.

A reliable method of identifying whether a recyclate was actually made from plastic waste originating from the sea, river or beach is the so-called marker-based process. In this process, a masterbatch with a luminescent inorganic marker is added with the help of a dosing unit. The dosing quantity can be determined using a suitable sensor system and regulated via a control system. The sensor system is installed in the extruder, immediately after the melt filter, or on the vibrating chute after granulation.  (...)

► Brochure (pdf)

There are already a number of systems for separating and sorting plastic waste according to color and plastic type. In addition, image processing systems, paired with artificial intelligence (AI), provide good services in the recognition of shapes or in the search for applied barcodes or QR codes and so-called digital watermarks when separating plastic packaging. But what happens in the further course of the recycling process after washing and shredding the pre-sorted material? Especially if they are fragments or flakes of the same color and the same type of plastic?
A printed code or digital watermark can then no longer be used, which means that it is no longer possible to differentiate between food and non-food, for example. After regranulation, the recyclate can no longer be used to determine the area in which the source material was used.
In order to be able to check the section in the recycling process immediately before and after the recyclate is extruded, a permanent, processing-resistant and temperature-resistant marking or coding must be applied to the plastic matrix. This makes it possible to close the gap in material monitoring, particularly with regard to identity, origin and quality. The marking typically consists of phosphorescent, inorganic microparticles. Due to their inert properties and size,
they can be incorporated into almost all plastic products. Marker-based masterbatches from Gabriel-Chemie are now available under the brand name TAGTEC (Taggant Technology). (...)

► Press release (pdf)
► Press release (Word/zip)
► Brochure (pdf)

Comment surveiller au mieux le produit tout au long de son cycle de vie ?
Le passeport numérique des produits de R-Cycle, ou DPP, fournit une excellente base à cet effet. Grâce au DPP, il possible de consulter simplement les données importantes non seulement pour le produit mais aussi pour le recyclage. Différents codes permettent d’ouvrir le DPP : grâce à un code QR ou à des tatouages numériques qui peuvent être appliqués sur le produit sous forme de manchons ou d'étiquettes, ou encore être gravés au laser en code 3D dans le moule d'injection.
Les tatouages numériques sont considérés comme inviolables, tandis qu'un code QR peut être facilement imité. Par contre, une fois combiné avec les mélanges-maîtres de Gabriel-Chemie, même un code QR peut être estimé comme « sûr ». Les mélanges-maîtres TAGTEC de Gabriel-Chemie contiennent une riche sélection de différents marqueurs excitables par la lumière. Ces marqueurs peuvent être détectés à l'aide d'un optocapteur spécial de Sensor Instruments. Les produits marqués par TAGTEC se sont avérés infalsifiables. Combinés aux possibilités offertes par un DDP, il est possible de garantir une surveillance de la chaîne de production robuste et fiable.

 

Improved Sorting of Plastic Waste with Luminescent Pigments
The HolyGrail 2.0 Initiative aims to improve the sorting of plastic waste. For this purpose, digital watermarks containing information on packaging type, material, and usage will be applied on products. However, the method also has certain drawbacks. Here, luminescent pigments provide an alternative that is permanent and can withstand several processing cycles.