In the course of growing enrironmental awareness in the whole of Europe, plastic recycling is developing into a trend-setting technology offering practical solutions for dealing with the ever increasing quantities of domestic and industrial waste. Refakt Anlagenbau GmbH (D-74909 Meckesheim) supplies fully developed technology for this purpose. More than 70 Refakt systems delivered world-wide (25 of which in German) have forwarded Refakt to become the leading supplier of plastic recycling systems or the recovery of used material. By using patented hydrocyclones and buoyancy processes Refakt's systems are able to guarantee a very high standard of separation and excellent purity of the material to be recycled. Recycling companies can make good profits with the high quality, valuable recycled materials. Refakt systems are operated on a production-line scale and as pilot systems or technology research.

A Refakt pilot system is being installed in the European Centre for Plastic Research (Boulevard Paul Valéry, F-34140 Mèze) in the South of France. The institutions responsible for the Centre is the "Ecole de Chimie" department at the Montpellier University and the City of Mèze. The demonstration system with an hourly capacity of 50-150 kg can be used for the processing of all types of plastics. It is available to French companies interested in plastic recycling to assist them in their decision-making. The partners of the Centre are also reprensented in Eco-Emballage. The commissioning of a Refakt pilot recycling system was attended by the Spanish Royal Couple at the end of 1993. The system, with a capacity of 200 kg/hr and used for further development of plastic recycling, is in the Technology Research Centre in the Spanish Basque Region. A high capacity Refakt recycling system has been in successful operation in Karup, Jutland, Denmark since the middle of December 1993 (Danrec Karup ApS, Vandvaerksvey 5, DK-7470 Karup); see Plasteurope.com No 02/1994. A variety of different materials from DSD (compulsory scrap collection system in Germany) are recycled in this plant. Up to 1.4 t of bottles or hollow items or even 1.2 t of film and 0.4 t PS/PP tubs can be processed hourly. In May 1994 a Refakt system with a capacity of 1000 kg/hr was commissioned in Great Britain. Primarily, the plant is for recycling PP and PE bottles collected from domestic waste. The regranulated material is used in the blow moulding sector by Plysu plc (Woburn Sands, GB-Milton Keynes MK 178 SE).