National Recovery Technologies, Inc.
566 Mainstream Drive, Suite 300, Nashville, TN 37228-1202
(615)734-6400 httptfwww.nrt-inc.com
DESCRIPTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY
With support from the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Pro-
gram, National Recovery Technologies, Inc. (NRT) has
developed and commercialized an innovative process for
sorting postconsumer plastic containers. NRT's process is
capable of sorting plastics by polymer with high accuracy
and at the high-speed throughputs required for cost-ef-
fective recycling. Plastics constitute about 9 percent by
weight of municipal solid waste, and they occupy approxi-
mately one-fourth of the volume of the waste stream. The
cost of transporting and disposing of plastics in landfills is
very expensive due to their light weight and large vol-
ume. In addition, plastics in landfills are highly resistant
to degradation. Therefore, EPA has recommended recy-
cling as the preferred management method for plastics
over alternative landfill or incineration methods.
For plastics recycling to be economically viable, the re-
cycled resins must be of high quality and priced competi-
tively with virgin resins. To produce high-quality recycled
resins that can replace virgin resins, it is necessary that
the recycled resins be cost-effectively sorted to high-pu-
rity specifications. In particular, it is necessary that the
plastics be sorted by individual polymer while minimiz-
ing processing costs. NRT's sorting process satisfies these
requirements by coupling high-speed spectroscopy for posi-
tive polymer identification, concurrent parallel process-
ing for rapid identification, quick real-time sorting re-
sponse, and precision air jet selection of materials. Be-
cause NRT's sorting process facilitates plastics recycling,
it supports EPA's goal to reduce the quantity of waste re-
quiring disposal.
Previously, some postconsumer packaging container res-
ins were sorted automatically according to their visual
color characteristics and visual light transmission proper-
ties, resulting in a pseudo-polymer sort. However, this is
only an approximation and until the introduction of NRT's
technology, it only was possible to sort plastics into a few
major constituents and only at relatively low accuracy,
requiring significant manual sorting for quality control.
Another system using expensive x-ray technology currently
is used to sort polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics from
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics; however, its
accuracy is somewhat limited and is not applicable to
other polymers.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TECHNOLOGY
NRT's new technology overcomes the inaccuracies and
limited applicability inherent in existing technologies by
providing rapid positive identification of plastics by poly-
mer type according to its infrared (IR) spectral finger-
print. Each polymer has a unique IR fingerprint and,
.- NRT has developed a highly accurate, high-speed process for sorting postconsumer plastics resins by
polymer type.
• The new technology enables low-cost automated sorting of postconsumer plastics for recycling, which
significantly improves the economics for plastics recycling.
• NRT's new technology is cost effective for low- and high-volume applications, making automated sort-
ing of plastics affordable for community materials recovery facilities.
4- Numerous commercial systems have been installed at recycling facilities in North America and Europe.
,- Negotiations are in process for installation of additional units in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
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NRT's technology facilitates accurate, high-speed sorting of postconsumer
resins by polymer type. It couples high-speed spectroscopy for accurate poly-
mer identification with concurrent parallel processing for rapid identification
to enable cost-effective sorting to high-purity specification.
therefore, can be readily distinguished and sorted from
other polymers.
Current automated systems are complicated and require
a high level of technical sophistication to reconfigure sys-
tem sorting characteristics. Consequently, it has been dif-
ficult for operators to control these systems to the level
and precision necessary to optimize performance. NRT's
technology eliminates this problem by introducing a user
friendly man-machine interface that incorporates a touch
screen graphical interface so operators can easily set
system-sorting parameters and control system operation.
COMMERCIALIZATION SUCCESS
Numerous commercial systems have been installed in
North American and European recycling facilities. NRT
expects that this innovative sorting system will be applied
in the recycling industry worldwide, both in new applica-
tions and in replacement of older generation automated
sorting systems currently in use. In 1991, NRT introduced
the award-winning VinylCycle® Separator, the world's
first system for sorting PVC bottles from PET bottles at
industrial feed rates. Developed in cooperation with EPA
and the Vinyl Institute, the VinylCycle® has become
the industry standard for this critical sorting task and
the "workhorse" system for most major PET plastics
recyclers. NRT's VinylCycle® Separator is in commercial
operation at various Fortune 500 companies, plastic pro-
cessors, and waste companies in the United States and
throughout the world.
COMPANY HISTORY
NRT, based in Nashville, TN, is a leader in the recycling
equipment industry, providing equipment and systems for
sorting municipal solid waste, curbside collected materi-
als, and plastics waste streams. NRT proprietary technolo-
gies are on the cutting edge of automated sorting systems.
NRT assists in the recovery of materials for alternate uses
while preserving valuable landfill space. NRT systems re-
cover aluminum, steel, glass, newspaper, corrugated box-
board, mixed waste paper, plastics, and batteries.
EPA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program was created to assist small businesses in
transforming innovative ideas into commercial products. The SBIR Program has two phases—Phase I is
the feasibility study to determine the validity of the proposed concept and Phase II is the development of
the technology or product proven feasible in Phase I. EPA also offers Phase II Options to accelerate the
commercialization of SBIR technologies and to complete EPA's Environmental Technology Verification
(ETV) Program. For more information about EPA's SBIR Program and the National Center for Environmental
Research, visit http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir.
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