InteliSpark client, Intermix Performance Materials, Inc., wins a phase I STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) grant from the Department of Energy to develop technology that increases the efficiency and lowers the costs of recycling mixed-plastics.
Plastic, a convenient and widely used material found in households and industries all across the country, is a difficult material to recycle. The challenge with two of the most common plastics, polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) that also make up a large faction of waste, is that they must be processed separately when recycled. They must be sorted first at a material recovery facility which makes recycling these plastics incredibly inefficient and costly. Furthermore, when plastics are recycled, their properties change and the end result is often a lower-quality material.
To address these challenges, Intermix Performance Materials, has developed a recycling technology that not only bypasses the step of sorting mixed plastics but also creates high-quality plastics as an end result. Researchers have developed “compatibilizers,” or chemicals that allow the two plastics, PP and PE, to be recycled together. Their novel chemical recycling takes plastic apart at the molecular level and creates plastic that is high in quality as an end result.
This innovative recycling technology that was developed at Cornell University may make a great positive impact on our environment through increased recycling rates.