Method and apparatus for the recovery of packaging and its contents

An apparatus for separating and recovering packaging material and its contents, comprising:

• two counter-rotating cylinders having a plurality of mutually offset axially spaced plates with claw-shaped radial projections, the peripheral edges of each plate being essentially square-edged and the cylinders being arranged to mutually overlap over at least part of the peripheries of the plates, wherein adjacent plates are spaced to permit packaging material engaged and drawn into a respective opposing groove by a hook-shaped projection to be cut and torn by the square edges of the mutually overlapping plates;
• and
• a soft material separator arranged directly downstream of said cylinders for extracting the contents from said packaging material under pressure.

A method for recovering packaging material and its contents, comprising the steps

• feeding packaging elements comprising at least remains of content material to a cutting zone,
• cutting and tearing said packaging elements into coarse particles which are devoid of cavities that trap content material and
• applying pressure to said coarse particles progressively to expel said content material.