The Green Series: Improving Recycling

H
HLK

Contributor

HLK is a global cooperation combining Haseltine Lake Kempner LLP and HL Kempner Partnerschaft mbB and provides a full suite of IP services advising across the entire IPR Lifespan™ in all technical and scientific disciplines. With offices in London, Bristol, Munich, Leeds, Glasgow, and Guangzhou (China), HLK provides IP services across the globe. HLK’s resources and expertise are exclusively dedicated to IP protection: safeguarding the inventions, creative designs, brand identities and other innovations of its clients. HLK advises on the strategy, identification, protection, opposition and appeal, exploitation and enforcement of IP rights, and defends its clients from allegations of infringement by focusing on acquiring competitive advantage for its clients. HLK is privileged to work with some of the most exciting and forward-looking businesses in the world which are at the forefront of innovation and product development in their various spheres.
Today is World Environment Day, and this year we are celebrating by turning our attentions to the benefits of recycling!
United Kingdom Environment

Today is World Environment Day, and this year we are celebrating by turning our attentions to the benefits of recycling! Recycling has two major benefits to the environment, as it reduces the amount of rubbish entering landfills and reduces pollution produced in creating new products. For example, recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than creating paper from new materials and it takes 75% less energy to make a plastic bottle from recycled plastic compared with using new materials. Sadly, the average person in the UK still throws away their body weight in rubbish every seven weeks!

In order for recycling to become more widespread, technology is being developed to make recycling more efficient and cost effective. One area of improvement is how recycled materials are sorted once they reach a recycling centre. Here are some inventions looking to tackle this issue:

1) Sorting Paper

WO2018014237 presents an invention which aims to sort and process paper waste. The paper is passed under hot melt rollers which flatten it, before it passes into the main chamber. This chamber contains a colour detection device, which sorts the paper into three groups based on colour and separates those groups into three treatment tanks. In these treatments tanks, the paper is dissolved into pulp, which can then be used to make new paper products.

2) Sorting Plastic

CN108273741 is a sorting device aimed at sorting plastics based on weight. The plastic is poured into a vibrating container, which then rotates to pour the plastic in front of a fan. The heavier plastics then fall and are collected at the bottom of the device, whereas the lighter plastics are blown by the fan into a screen. The screen is vibrated so that smaller particles fall to the bottom of the device and are collected, while the bulky plastic remains on the screen and is collected separately.

3) Sorting Metals

US2001048039 is a machine designed to sort and extract metals from unsorted waste. The machine is fed a stream of material. This stream is then shredded, before being separated into a heavy stream and a light stream. Each stream is then passed through a magnetic separator, which attracts any ferrous materials and separates them from the streams. These materials can then be collected and reused.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Mondaq uses cookies on this website. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Learn More