Method and apparatus for cleaning material recovered from soiled plastic containers, packaging and the like

A cleaning apparatus for fragments of plastic that have been recovered from plastic containers, said containers having been soiled through use by contact with liquid-soluble matter, and the plastic fragments being eligible for recycling once they have been cleaned, comprising:

• a. means for supplying to the entrance of an elongated chamber a continuous stream of liquid under pressure, said stream having entrained therein plastic fragments that are to be cleaned, and the liquid being one that is appropriate for cleaning the plastic fragments;
• b. an elongated chamber defined by liquid-impervious walls, the chamber having an entrance and an exit and a longitudinal axis therebetween, and the chamber having a cross-sectional shape which is defined by establishing a plane that passes transversely through the chamber and perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis, and the walls of the chamber serving as the boundaries for a major axis that lies in said transverse plane;
• c. a plurality of turbulence generators distributed longitudinally along the interior of the elongated chamber, said turbulence generators constituting static structural pieces, each having a width that contributes to turbulence in a liquid flowing through the elongated chamber and past the turbulence generators, and said turbulence generators extending respectively in directions that make significant angles with respect to the longitudinal axis of the chamber, and the orientation of a given turbulence generator forming an angle of at least 45 degrees with respect to the orientation of an immediately adjacent turbulence generator when a serial array of such generators are viewed in a direction that is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the chamber, and each turbulence generator having a length that is at least 25 percent of the length of the chamber's major axis, and the width of each turbulence generator being less than one-third of the chamber's major axis, such that there remains ample space for a liquid and any entrained plastic fragments to pass the turbulence generators as the liquid and plastic fragments pass longitudinally from the chamber's entrance to its exit, whereby turbulence in the liquid that serves as the carrier for the plastic fragments will also serve to clean the plastic fragments;
• and
• d. separator means located at the exit of the elongated chamber for separating the plastic fragments from the liquid that has been used to clean the fragments during their excursion through the elongated chamber.