Section: Patenting recyclable plastics | Advanced lecture series – Fibre-reinforced plastics recycling and alternative plastics | e-learning centre
Main course pagePatenting recyclable plastics
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Patenting recyclable plastics
Patenting recyclable plastics – trends and challenges from an examiner/patent office perspective
Mechanical waste sorting may be considered as the initial step for providing a higher value to (plastic) waste gained from household or industry. Patenting innovations in packaging in order to ease subsequent waste treatment with e.g. labels implicitly disclosing a particular material composition, the collection/sorting, and the separation of waste appear of paramount importance. This may equally include vision systems complemented by AI-assisted systems to foster waste classification at automatic waste processing stations and increase the general quality waste flows even before considering further mechanical or chemical treatment to enable reuse. Improving the quality of waste flows is a long ongoing process which in turn helps improving the level of plastic recycling itself. Such solutions allow plastic recyclers to increase the quality of secondary raw materials and convert the otherwise poor-quality streams into enhanced quality second-use plastics. Other points of interest in mechanical treatment include robot-assisted conveyor belts to accelerate waste sorting. At the same time, these new approaches tackle worker scarcity while enhancing operational efficiency and minimize manual interventions. As a result, it reduces the workers’ exposure to unsafe environment and increases their safety. The presentation will cover different concrete examples.
08 November 2023 | Moderator: Christian Wellhausen (Team manager, EPO)
Experts: Allard van Wallene (Examiner, EPO), Francesca Tassinari (Examiner, EPO)
