Process for recycling plastic container scrap

A batch process for the conversion of defective in-mold labeled thermoplastic containers into recyclable granules comprising the steps of:

• (a) grinding said containers into granules;
• (b) loading said granules into a mixing station;
• (c) loading hot wash water into said mixing station;
• (d) agitating the mixture of hot water and granules to separate substantially all of said label material from said granules;
• (e) separating said hot water and said label material from said granules by removing said hot water and said label material from said mixing station;
• (f) removing said label material from said hot water;
• (g) recycling said hot water into a hot water reservoir;
• (h) loading excess hot water from said reservoir to overflow said mixing station to cause said granules to overflow a weir and deposit in a dewatering station;
• and
• (i) subsequently removing substantially all of the residual wash water from said granules.

A process for purifying scrap plastic granules from thermoplastic containers by removing paper label residue therefrom comprising the steps of:

• (a) charging a mixing tank with a batch of said granules;
• (b) charging said mixing tank with hot water from a hot water reservoir to form a mixture of said hot water and said granules;
• (c) agitating said mixture to separate a first portion of said paper residue from said granules;
• (d) removing said hot water and said paper residue from said granules;
• (e) filtering said paper residue from said hot water;
• (f) returning said hot water to said reservoir;
• (g) repeating steps b-f sufficiently to remove substantially all of said paper residue from said granules;
• (h) charging said mixing tank with an amount of said hot water from said reservoir to overflow said granules over an overflow weir into a dewatering tank;
• (i) separating said granules from a major portion of said hot water at said dewatering station and returning said hot water to said hot water reservoir;
• (j) charging a drying means with said granules from said dewatering tank;
• and
• (k) drying said granules to remove substantially all of said residual water on said granules.

A batch process for the conversion of defective paper labeled polyethylene containers comprising the steps of:

• (a) grinding said containers into granules;
• (b) loading said granules into a mixing station;
• (c) loading hot wash water into said mixing station;
• (d) agitating the mixture of hot water and granules to separate substantially all of said paper label material from said granules;
• (e) separating said hot water and paper label material from said granules by removing said hot water and paper label material from said mixing station;
• (f) removing said paper label material from said hot water;
• (g) recycling said hot water into a hot water reservoir;
• (h) loading excess hot water from said reservoir to overflow said mixing station to cause said granules to overflow a weir and deposit in a dewatering station;
• (i) separating said granules from a major portion of said wash water and returning said wash water to said reservoir;
• (j) charging said granules into a drying means;
• and
• (k) drying said granules in said drying means to remove substantially all of said wash water from said granules.