Since 2005, RECORD has been looking into innovative methods for significantly increasing the sorting capacity of end-of-life plastics (particularly ELV and WEEE). Following a review of the state of the art with highly motivating conclusions on 1/ the integration of tracers in polymers 2/ the detection of these tracers in the corresponding waste (2006), RECORD decided to pursue its research by co-funding a thesis on this subject with ADEME. The results of this thesis are now available and are the subject of the report presented here. The main aim of this work, carried out between 2007 and 2010, was to assess the technical feasibility of using X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry to detect tracers initially added to a polymer (in the case of polypropylene). The results of this work are being pursued as part of the ANR's ECOTECH programme called TRIPTIC. The aim of the TRIPTIC project is to develop a technology for marking polymers using tracer systems, whether SFX or UV fluorescence, and to develop sorting pilots.
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