SELEX

Take a look around your home, the inside of your car, your office building or your school and you will notice that most of the plastic associated with electronics is black. While the polymeric materials are often amenable to recycling, some coatings and additives are not. Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable method to determine the presence of restricted additives in black plastics. The recycling industry is forced to return a large volume of recyclable waste to the waste stream, an inefficient process that impacts the environment. The EU-funded SELEX project has developed a solution: patented X-ray technology that can identify polymers and additives in black and coloured plastics. Commercialisation is moving forward with EU support.