11/29/2011
8,066,785
Process for recycling waste materials
Gonchar et al of Recarbon, Pennsylvania, used biodiesel and other high boiling esters with short alkyl groups to produce liquid fuels from waste material.  The waste material is added to a solvent having a predetermined cycle starting solvent volume.  An energy source is introduced into the solvent for a predetermined time at a predetermined temperature and pressure to form a non-grindable product.  (RDC 12/5/2011)

11/29/2011
8,066,207
Method for processing and analyzing contaminated mixed waste plastics to produce reformulated, blended feed materials having desired physical properties
Brooks and Becker of Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies, Arkansas, developed a method for reformulating reclaimed, contaminated mixed waste plastics into useful articles where batches of the mixed waste plastics are preprocessed to produce substantially homogeneous mixtures of a desired particle size range that are characterized according to at least one of their respective plastic content, densities, color and degree of contamination, and are thereafter blended to produce a mixed plastic feed material having properties predetermined to be desirable for reprocessing into at least one of such useful articles.  (RDC 123/2/2011)

10/11/2011
8,034,271
Process for making composite products from fibrous waste material
Fan and Bonfield of Building Research Establishment, Great Britain,made composite products from waste material by a) obtaining fibrous material produced by the thermal treatment of waste materials with pressurized steam; b) mixing the fibrous material with a binding material; c) forming the resulting mixture into a shape; d) pressing the shaped mixture under pressure; and e) hardening the mixture; wherein the process also comprises the steps of the separating out the fibrous material and deodorizing the fibrous material. The waste material may be domestic bin liner waste.  (RDC 10/13/2011)

2/15/2011
7,887,726
Self-Reinforced Composite made of Recycled Materials and Process of making the same.
Tsai of Novana, Georgia, developed a a self-reinforced composite of a recycled fiber having a Young's modulus at least about 500 MPa in a recycled thermoplastic  matrix from the carpet and automotive industries.  The process is based on  melt-blending recycled immiscible polymers,  phase-migration fiber spinning the recycled immiscible polymers to form a fiber surrounded by a second recycled thermoplastic polymer, and (c) drawing the fiber to form a high modulus fiber.  (RDC 8/26/2011)

10/12/2010
7,811,402
Polymer recovery method from polarizing plates and methods of producing recycled polymer films and polarizing plates
Nimura from Fuji Film, Japan separated films attached to polarizing plates for recycling by soaking in water and shearing the film from the plates.  (RDC 1/10/2011)

8/17/2010
7,776,948
Composite counterweight and method of making same
DeVito et al of Innotec have developed a counterweight for machines based on dense mill wastes and taconite mining wastes,which arepulverized and mixed with a recycled polymeric binder, melted,and extruded.  (RDC 10/30/2010)

7,776,243
Recycled materials strengthening process, system and products
Braun et al from Hawaii have developed a process for recycling plastics from garbage.  The plastics are shredded within the garbage, heated to form a slurry and extruded thorugh a venturi pipe. (The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure when fluid flows through a restricted section o pipe.)  The Venturi pipe orients fibers, strengthening the material. (RDC 10/30/2010)

7/20/2010
7,758,729
System for Recycling Plastics
DeWhitt has developed a system for recycling plastics based on heating the material in a vacuum through incremental set temperatures and collecting the resulting vapors and materials.