Latent Recycling Potential of Multilayer Films in Austrian Waste Management.

This work presents a hand sorting trial of Austrian plastic packaging, which showed that according to an extrapolation of the 170,000 t separately collected waste collected in Austria, 30 wt% are flexible 2D plastic packaging. Further, the applications for these materials have been catalogued. The composition of these films was evaluated via Fourier-Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy, which showed that 31% of all films were made of polyethene, 39% of polypropylene, 11% of polyethene-polyethene terephthalate composite, and 8% of a polyethene-polypropylene composite, further resulting in the calculation that of all flexible packaging, 20 wt% are multilayer films. These findings were used to calculate the latent potential for raising the current recycling quota of 25.7% to the mandated rate of 55% in 2030. To this end, scenarios depicting different approaches to sorting and recycling small films were evaluated. It was calculated that through improving the sorting of films the recycling rate could be increased to 35.5%. This approach allows for the recycling of monolayer films by avoiding contamination with foreign materials introduced by multilayer films that impede the recyclates' mechanical properties. The evaluation showed that sorting multilayer films of this fraction could raise the recycling quota further to 38.9%.

Recycling chains for lithium-ion batteries: A critical examination of current challenges, opportunities and process dependencies.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) show high energy densities and are therefore used in a wide range of applications: from portable electronics to stationary energy storage systems and traction batteries used for e-mobility. Considering the projected increase in global demand for this energy storage technology, driven primarily by growth in e-vehicles, and looking at the criticality of some raw materials used in LIBs, the need for an efficient recycling strategy emerges. In this study, current state-of-the-art technologies for LIB recycling are reviewed and future opportunities and challenges, in particular to recover critical raw materials such as lithium or cobalt, are derived. Special attention is paid to the interrelationships between mechanical or thermal pre-treatment and hydro- or pyrometallurgical post-treatment processes. Thus, the unique approach of the article is to link processes beyond individual stages within the recycling chain. It was shown that influencing the physicochemical properties of intermediate products can lead to reduced recycling rates or even the exclusion of certain process options at the end of the recycling chain. More efforts are needed to improve information and data sharing on the exact composition of feedstock for recycling as well as on the processing history of intermediates to enable closed loop LIB recycling. The technical understanding of the interrelationships between different process combinations, such as pyrolytic or mechanical pre-treatment for LIB deactivation and metal separation, respectively, followed by hydrometallurgical treatment, is of crucial importance to increase recovery rates of cathodic metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium, but also of other battery components.

Characterisation and material flow analysis of end-of-life portable batteries and lithium-based batteries in different waste streams in Austria.

Although separate collection systems for portable batteries (PBs) have been installed years ago, high amounts of batteries still do not enter the collection systems of the member states of the European Union (EU). In Austria, the collection rate has recently dropped to the EU target value of 45%. For the purposes of this study, a comprehensive survey was conducted to identify the destinations of the other end-of-life batteries. A literature survey and an assessment of different waste streams (WSs) were followed by sampling and sorting campaigns for highly relevant WSs (residual waste, lightweight packaging waste, metal packaging waste, and small waste electrical and electronic equipment). The results underwent material flow analysis, showing that more than 800 metric tonnes of portable batteries are misplaced into non-battery-specific collection systems, 718 metric tonnes of them entering residual waste collection. Considerable amounts of batteries are stockpiled, stored or hoarded in Austrian households. Lithium-based batteries, representing a serious risk of fire to the waste industry and making up for 30% of the marketed amount, are still scarcely arriving in waste management systems.