Plasma recycling

Alcoa’s Brazilian affiliate Alcoa Aluminio has joined Tetra Pak, Klabin and TSL Ambiental  to inaugurate the world’s first carton packaging recycling facility located in Piracicaba, Brazil.

The plant uses plasma technology developed by TSL Ambiental, which enables the total separation of aluminium and plastic components from cartons. The process is an enhancement to the current recycling process for carton packaging, which up until now, separated paper, but kept plastic and aluminium together.

The application of plasma technology for the recycling of carton packaging employs electrical energy to produce a jet of plasma at 15 thousand degrees Celsius to heat the plastic and aluminium mixture. With this process, plastic is transformed into paraffin and the aluminium is recovered in the form of high-purity ingot.

Alcoa, which supplies thin-gauge aluminium foil to Tetra Pak for aseptic packaging, uses the recycled aluminium to manufacture new foils. Paraffin is sold to the Brazilian petrochemical industry. The paper, extracted during the first phase of the recycling process, is transformed into cardboard by Klabin.