Resources, Conservation and Recycling 44 (2005) 9198

The use of electrostatic techniques for the

identification and sorting of waste
packaging materials
G.L. Hearn , J.R. Ballard
Electrical Power Engineering Group, School of Electronics and Computer Science,
University of Southampton, Higheld, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Received 12 December 2002; accepted 19 August 2004

Abstract
Techniques have been developed which enable items of domestic waste packaging to be identified
and sorted into material groups prior to recycling. Plastic packaging items can be separated from
items of similar size and shape constructed from cardboard, wood or paper. This is achieved by
applying a controlled level of electrostatic charge and comparing the rate of charge relaxation using
a non-contacting electric field meter. Plastic packaging items such as bottles, food tubs and trays are
subsequently streamed into their polymer groups using a series of tribo-electric probes. The probes
are brought into contact with the packaging materials to be identified and comprise a rotating head
or drum, which generates an electrostatic charge due to the friction between the head and the item
to be identified. Since the magnitude and polarity of the generated charge depends on the polymers
comprising both the head material and the packaging material, a degree of identification can be
obtained.
Using this technique has resulted in: (a) the successful separation of plastics from non-plastics and
(b) plastics separated into polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/polystyrene (PS),
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) streams. The technique ideally lends
itself to incorporation on an automated recycling line.
2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Electrostatics; Plastic; Packaging; Sorting

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 2380 594995; fax: +44 2380 593015.
E-mail address: glh@soton.ac.uk (G.L. Hearn).

0921-3449/$ see front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2004.08.001

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1. Introduction
Data from the UK Department of Trade and Industry indicates that on average each
household in the United Kingdom throws away 1.6 kg of dense plastic waste, each week, in
the form of bottles, containers and food trays (DTI, 2002). This amounted to a total of around
15,000 tonnes during 2001 (Recoup, 2002). According to the results of recent research
(Hampshire County Council, 2001), common household plastic waste items comprise the
following polymers.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET/PETE)squash and carbonated drink bottles, alcoholic
drink bottles and some food trays. For recycling purposes this polymer is usually separated
into three groups; clear (or with a slight blue tint), green and other mixed colours. The
clear group is the most desirable as it is closest to the natural PET state. Currently, the
green group is produced in sufficient quantity to be reused while the mixed group is
recycled but only in small amounts.
High-density polyethylene (HDPE)milk bottles, oil containers, bleaches, cleaning
products and some bags. HDPE can be sub divided into two groups, natural and coloured.
Natural is used mainly for milk bottles.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)some fruit cordial and spring water bottles and some food
trays.
Polypropylene (PP)PP is used for spread containers, such as butter and margarine, and
most bottle caps.
Polystyrene (PS)trays and drinks dispenser cups; expanded polystyrene is used for
meat trays.
HDPE and PET are by far the most commonly encountered household waste plastics
(Hooper et al., 2001).
In order to reduce the amount of material going to landfill a degree of recycling is already
being applied to household waste collection. One particularly important development is the
use of the material recovery facility (MRF) or super MRF (ETSU, 1998). This applies a
degree of sorting to general household waste in a semi-automated way. With the exception
of two MRFs in the UK, plastic packaging items, including bottles are currently sorted by
hand, which is both laborious and inefficient. The use of an automated system for recognising
the various plastics is an obvious requirement.
The concept of using the electrostatic properties of the material as a basis for identification
was investigated by Hearn et al. (1997). Natural materials such as wood, cardboard and paper
have an intrinsic electrical conductivity, several orders of magnitude greater than virtually
all polymers (Davies, 1967; Hearn, 1997). Thus, the migration of electrical charge across
the surface of a cardboard box is much greater than that of a plastic carton. This difference
in the rate of charge movement can therefore, be used as a basis of discriminating between
plastic and non-plastic packaging items.
The development of the Tribopen (Hearn et al., 1996) illustrates how another electrical
property that of tribo-electrification can also be used in order to distinguish between polymer
types. Tribo-electrification occurs when two unlike materials are brought together and then
separated. Upon separation, one of the materials acquires a positive charge while the other

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93

acquires a negative charge. Rubbing the two materials together, as opposed to simple contact
or separation, tends to enhance the triboelectric effect. The generation of electrical charge
in this way is particularly suited to plastics since they are highly electrically insulating by
nature. As a consequence, any charge that is generated is retained on the surface of the
interacting materials and can be measured. Plastics may be arranged in a table according to
whether they charge preferentially positive or negative when rubbed against other materials.
The table is known as a tribo-electric series and is analogous to the electrochemical series
for metals (Davies, 1969). The series is usually displayed with the most positively charging
materials at the top and most negatively charging materials at the bottom. It follows therefore
that if two materials are picked from this series and rubbed together the higher of the two
in the series will charge positively and the other negatively.
Measurement of tribo-electric charge is relatively easy and can be used to distinguish
between two plastics. This can be achieved by rubbing each of the two plastics with a third
reference material chosen from a position in the series between the two plastics of interest.
The electrostatic charge generated on this reference material will be negative for one plastic
and positive for the other.
The attraction of the two techniques described above is their inherent simplicity and
suitability for incorporation on an automated sorting line.

2. Experimental study
For this work, the use of the charge relaxation technique to differentiate between plastics
and non-plastics was investigated under controlled laboratory conditions of humidity and
temperature. Representative items of packaging were chosen including the following: cardboard crisp/snack tubes, PET bottles, HDPE milk bottles, PP-coated cardboard juice cartons
and assorted plastic food trays. Each of the samples in turn were placed on a grounded,
electrically conductive rubber substrate and charged by means of a +20 kV dc ioniser bar
passed over the top of each sample at a constant height above the substrate (simulating the
action of a conveyor belt). Immediately after charging, the electrostatic surface potential
on the item under test was monitored using an electric field meter. Fig. 1 gives a comparison of the charge relaxation characteristics of the 5 packaging materials obtained at
a temperature of 20 C and a relative humidity of 30%. At time T = 0 in Fig. 1, the ionic
charging source is removed and replaced with an electric field meter measuring the surface
potential on the packaging sample in kilovolts. As time elapses, charge migration occurs
over the surface of the sample to the grounded substrate and the monitored potential begins to decay. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that there are significant differences between the
relaxation rates of the plastic and non-plastic samples. The presence of a PP coating on
cardboard, which is likely to be less than 20 m in thickness, has some effect over plain
cardboard, however, there is a significant difference between the curves for the non-plastic
and plastic items. Comparing electrostatic potentials after 10 s of charge relaxation enabled
plastic and non-plastic items to be easily discriminated. There is also a difference between
the PET and HDPE bottles with the electrostatic potential on the HDPE decaying more
rapidly. The curves in Fig. 1 were found to be representative of the above packaging items
generally and there was very little variation observed between different test samples of the

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Fig. 1. Electrostatic charge relaxation rates for different packaging materials.

same material. The presence of residual liquid within the packaging items appeared to have
little effect.
In order to segregate different plastics from each other using tribo-electrification it was
necessary to identify reference materials which when brought into frictional contact with the
various waste plastics would charge to the appropriate polarity. A large number of trials were
undertaken in which potential reference materials were manually rubbed against a variety
of plastic packaging. The resultant magnitude and polarity of electrostatic charge developed
were recorded using an electric field meter. These trials were undertaken in a controlled
environment of 20 C and 30% R.H. as before. Many potential reference materials that were
tested were found to be unsuitable because they did not register a polarity shift. Two suitable
materials were found; polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), which acquired a negative charge
when rubbed against polypropylene, but charged positively when rubbed against the other
plastics of interest and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) which charged negatively against
PET and PS and positively against HDPE and PVC.
Since plastic packaging waste arrives at the recycling point in a variety of forms it was
necessary to identify a practical, controlled method of bringing the reference material and
waste items into contact. Furthermore, the presence of labels on many of the bottles gave
confused readings in terms of charge generation. The tribo-electric system designed to solve
these issues is shown in Fig. 2. It takes the form of a probe with a rotating cylindrical head,
which is brought into contact with the waste plastic to be identified. The head is constructed
of the reference tribo-electric material (PVDF or PBT) driven by a small electric motor at
around 900 Hz. Electrostatic charge generated on the cylindrical head in contact with the
waste plastic is conducted away by an array or comb of fine metallic filaments on the
opposite side of the cylinder. This generates a small positive or negative electrical current,
which can be detected and processed accordingly. The use of a probe with a relatively small
head of 25 mm diameter makes this a suitable technique for items of variable geometry.

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Fig. 2. Tribo-electric probe showing rotating cylindrical head (white PBT) and filament array.

95

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Fig. 3. Schematic of proposed mixed waste sorting line.

It also addresses the problem of labels since the probe can be brought into contact with
sections of the packaging, which are not covered by the label. The application proposed for
an automated recycling line would have the probe suspended above a conveyor and brought
down to contact the items as they pass beneath.
A schematic of a mixed household waste sorting line is given in Fig. 3. Non-plastics, such
as cardboard cartons, are removed at the beginning of the line using the charge relaxation
technique. Plastic items remaining on the line are then brought into contact with the PVDF
tribo-electric probe. Polypropylene materials such as margarine tubs register a negative
charge on the PVDF and are removed from the line. All other plastics register a positive
charge on the probe and are allowed to pass to the next sorting point. At this point, a similar
probe is used this time with the head composed of PBT. This head charges negative when
rubbed against PET and PS and these two materials are ejected from the line at this point.
HDPE and PVC packaging items generate a positive charge on the probe and pass to the
next sorting point. At this point in the line the vast majority of the material will consist of
HDPE in the form of milk bottles, detergent bottles, etc. There may also be some PVC food
trays and squash bottles. PVC and HDPE can be separated relatively simply by using clear

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97

object recognition. This technique uses an optical wavelength light beam to sort clear items
from opaque. This splits PVC and HDPE since PVC packaging is always clear and HDPE
is never present in packaging materials as a transparent plastic.

3. Discussion and conclusions

Two sorting techniques have been developed which use the electrostatic properties of
materials to produce separate material streams for the purposes of recycling. Trials have been
undertaken using typical common items of waste packaging giving encouraging results.
The techniques described in this paper are ideally suited to an automated recycling
line and could be considered for incorporation into currently operating super MRF and
other semi-automated recycling facilities. Early results indicate reliable operation under a
range of environmental conditions, however, the effects on sorting efficiency of extremes of
surface contamination, moisture, temperature and humidity have yet to be quantified. It is
recognised that the presence of high levels of surface contamination on the waste items to be
streamed may cause problems particularly for the tribo-electric sensor probe. Preliminary
examination of material from an MRF, however, suggests that these materials are generally
not heavily contaminated with anything other than moisture. The presence of surface water
does significantly influence both charge generation and tribo-electrification. MRFs and
plants where these techniques are likely to be applied lend themselves to the application of
driers or air curtains which could be installed upstream of the electrostatic sorting area. It is
also recognised that this technique may not be appropriate for all polymer types but can be
used in conjunction with other techniques. Such techniques may include an optical sensor
to separate PVC from HDPE and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Hearn, 2003) to
sort the stream containing PET/PETE and PS.
Difficulties may be encountered with certain packaging geometries and the presence of
labels and coatings. On all of these issues the use of the small tribo-electric probe is an
advantage as it can be directed at an area of packaging most likely to constitute exposed
polymer. For example, most plastic bottles have labels, which do not extend fully along
their length. It is envisaged that an automated line would use optical sensors to detect the
approach of the bottle and initiate the tribo-electric probe to make contact with only the
first few centimetres of the bottle above or below the label. Coatings, which are applied
to the full surface of the packaging, may confuse the tribo-electric probe. Indications are
however that such coatings applied to the outside of packaging materials are not common.
Furthermore, their presence may not necessarily cause incorrect streaming of the plastic
since the polarity of electrostatic charge generated by the coating may be similar to the base
polymer. It is recognised, however that further analysis is required in this case.

4. Future work
Work is continuing at the University of Southampton under the sponsorship of the Onyx
Environmental Trust. The next phase of work is to incorporate the techniques described
in this paper into a pilot scale recycling line for further analysis. The objectives of this

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future work are: (a) to develop a system which is capable of handling the diverse range
of packaging geometries currently found in domestic waste, (b) to assess, on a pilot scale
conveyor system, the resilience of these techniques (in particular the tribo-electric probe)
and (c) to gain information relating to the accuracy and reproducibility of the aforementioned
techniques, in a practical and quasi-industrial situation.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Onyx Environmental trust for their
financial support of this project. The authors would also like to extend their thanks to the
Ford Motor Company for their funding and support of initial work on the development of
electrostatic techniques for the recycling industry. Particular thanks goes to Professor John
Amner, Ford of Europes Automotive Recycling Specialist, who has provided a great deal of
time and effort with the University of Southampton investigating novel methods of plastics
identification.A final word of thanks is extended to Mr. P.E.R. Mucci of Powertile Ltd. and
formerly a member of the academic staff of the School of Engineering at the University of
Southampton for his advice on mechanical engineering issues associated with this project.

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