The development of new products brings new recycling challenges.
Two decades ago, no one had a problem recycling vape products because they did not even exist.
With over 55 million users, recycling of disposable vapes presents an actual challenge. It turns out that there are no solutions globally for sustainable recycling of disposable vapes and related products with the separation of different materials to allow for product recycling.
Evashred was approached by an international manufacturer wanting to do the right thing and recycle vapes responsibly. The brief was to produce a small shredder to destroy end-of-life nicotine products from the vape industry which needed to not only shred but to separate the different types of materials within the vapes.
Our design and manufacturing team took this opportunity to develop and supply our first screened shredder based around our small Evashred EV18E shredder.
Evashred EV18E Shredder
The way how we approached it was typical out of the box sensible thinking from sales to delivery and included the following.
- As part of the sales process our Sales Manager Neil Rees was able to negotiate a win-win fair deal where both parties shared some risk. That was important because it allows the project to go ahead in the situation when we weren’t 100% sure if our engineering solution will work because we never dealt with this exact requirement.
- Our lead Design Engineer, Peter Evans, came up with a design that allows achieving a specific consistent particle size, which was crucial for the further separation of material.
- To fulfil all of the requirements, we needed a separation machine for this project to separate the steel away from the plastics and the packaging of the product after shredding. While we considered the option of manufacturing the whole solution, the decision was made to purchase a separation machine to save time and cost.
The result was a consistent size particle coming from the small Evashred EV18E shredder that made the separation process easier to manage, the job is ongoing now while we wait for more orders for this technology to arrive in.
Image of shredded vape product using the Evashred EV18E shredder with a screen fitted
The customer was pleased with a machine capable of shredding the end of life vape products. The shredded product gets a rinse wash then is allowed to dry before starting the separation process, the shredded product is simply fed into the top of the shaker sorting unit’s hopper to begin the separation process.
This is a video link showing the Evashred EV18E shredder with a screen fitted to shred end of life vape products to a consistent particle size to make the next stage of separating the plastic from the metal in the waste stream an easier process using a shaker sorting separation machine.
Image of the screen used in the Evashred EV18E shredder for sizing particles to a consistent size
Shaker Separator unit supplied by Evashred to separate the plastic from the metal
Happy customers of Evashred contribute to a greener environment on our planet and we are proud to support them.
If you have end-of-life products that are perceived as hard or impossible to recycle, think again and check with experts because we can offer innovative solutions you might have not thought of yet.
This is the shaking separator table inside the sorting machine showing a shaker motor
Here is a video link to show the shaker separator being tested with shredded copper cable to separate the copper from the insulation https://youtu.be/upAbdPoLzSw