JUVENILE JOURNAL:

A PUBLICATION OF JUVENILE AFRICANITY IMO

STATE UNIVERSITY, OWERRI
JUVENILE JOURNAL: A PUBLICATION OF JUVENILE AFRICANITY
IMO STATE UNIVERSITY, OWERRI, NIGERIA

VOLUME 9, NUMBER 8, FEBRUARY, 2024

Published by Juvenile Africanity, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

I
©Juvenile Journal: A Publication of Juvenile Africanity Imo State University, Owerri, 2024

All rights reserved except as permitted under the Nigerian Copyright Act of 1999, no part of this
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ISSN: 2006- 7046

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THE JOURNAL SCOPE

The journal intention is to promote scholarship and end societal evils like child labour, child
trafficking, child soldiery and other forms of child abuses that pose a threat to the African child's
successful development informed the creation of Juvenile Journal, by Professor Godwin
Chibundu Egbucha. The Journal sees the child or youth as a human being and a veritable part of
the society, who deserves genuine care and respect in order to experience a healthy growth and
development, a condition which is necessary for a meaningful contribution to the well-being of
the society. JUVEJ welcomes papers from scholars whose ideas and values promote the welfare
of the African children and people.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Prof. Egbucha Godwin Chibundu (Chairman)

Imo State University, Owerri,

Okafor Emmanuel Kelechi PhD (Editor- in -Chief)

Imo State University, Owerri

Assoc. Prof. Clara M. Austin Iwuoha (Secretary)

Imo State University, Owerri

Christiana Ngozi Calice Idika PhD (Editor)

Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz, Germany

Mubarak Ademola Noibi PhD (Editor)

University of Ibadan, Ibadan

Gold Sunday Chukwuemeka PhD (Editor)

Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria

Augustine Uche Emela PhD (Editor)

Imo State University, Owerri

Assoc. Prof. Francis Falako (Editor)

University of Lagos

EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS
Prof. Jude Madu
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University

Prof. Okonkwo Jerome Ikechukwu

Imo State University, Owerri

Prof. Isidore U. Nwanaju

Ebonyi State University

Prof. Wotogbe – Weneka Willington

University of Port-Harcourt

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 CONTENTS
Nigerian Police And The Problem Of Hostage-Taking And Kidnapping in
The South East- Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma 1-11

Art As Catalyst for Social Control In Igboland: A Case Study of “Abigbo

Cultural Dance,” Mbaise, Imo State - Agugoesi, Kenneth Ugochukwu 12-18

A Case For Hybrid Polygamy In Response to The Shortfalls of Monogamy

and Traditional Polygamy in The Modern World - Stephen A. Oguji, PhD 19-35

The Application Of Deuteronomy 15:7-18 In Reducing Poverty in Imo State-

Adoba Wisdom Daniel 36-47

Content And Form in African Literature: Chukwuemeka Ike's Our

Children Are Coming, Femi Osofisan's Morountodun and Wole
Soyinka's “Telephone Conversation”- Augustine Uche Emela Ph.D 48-55

Plastic Recycling – A Case Study of Plastic Industry in Nigeria- Ewurum, N.B.B 56-63

Good Governance: A Panacea to Peace And Security in Nigeria-

Ogonnaya Chidi K., PhD 64-69

Magic, Medicine And Religion in African Traditional Society: A Phenomenological

Approach -Dr. Okafor Emmanuel Kelechi 70-79

Influence of Social Media on Substance Abuse Control Among UNN

Undergraduate Students- Ololo, Ugochukwu Justice Williams,
Moghalu, Favour Amarachi, Oringanje, Gerald Chinonso Jnr.
& Eze,Ogemdiuchenna 80-95

The Role of Philosophy in Today's Nigerian Political Odyssey

-Onuoha Fidelis Ebere Ph.D 96-106

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 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS AND INSTITUTIONS
1 Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma, Department of Religious and Cultural Studies (AGDSN),
University of Uyo

2 Agugoesi, Kenneth Ugochukwu, Department of Theatre Arts, Imo State University,

Owerri

3 Stephen A. Oguji, PhD, Department of Philosophy, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State

4 Adoba Wisdom Daniel, Faculty of Humanities, Imo State University, Owerri

5 Augustine Uche Emela Ph.D, Department of English and Literary Studies, Imo State
University, Owerri

6 Ewurum, N.B.B, Department of Physics and Industrial Physics, Imo State University, Owerri

7 Ogonnaya Chidi K., PhD, Department of Philosophy, Imo State University, Owerri

8 Dr. Okafor Emmanuel Kelechi, Department of Religious Studies, Imo State University,
Owerri

9 Ololo, Ugochukwu Justice Williams, Department of Mass Communication, University of

Nigeria Nsukka.

10 Moghalu, Favour Amarachi, Department of Business Education, University of Nigeria

Nsukka

11 Oringanje, Gerald Chinonso Jnr., Department of Mass Communication, University of

Nigeria Nsukka

12 Eze, OgemdiUchenna, Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria Nsukka

13 Onuoha Fidelis EberePh.D, Department of Religion, Peace and Conflict Studies, Imo State
University, Owerri

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PLASTIC RECYCLING – A CASE STUDY OF PLASTIC INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

BY

Ewurum, N.B.B
Department of Physics and Industrial Physics, Imo State University, Owerri

ABSTRACT

Plastic recycling is an increasingly important issue in today's society. The number of plastics and
their variation with additives has increased lately, affecting in turn the possibilities for plastic
material recycling. However, trends in e.g. Japan show a reduction in the number of plastics used
in e.g. household appliances. This reduction has been put into force in order to ease plastic
recycling for those kinds of products. In Nigeria, more efforts are put on collecting plastic for
material recycling. The intention for doing this is to have more plastic material recycled rather
than incinerated and energy recovered. This paper deals with a conceptual investigation and
development of an automatic plastic recycling plant in Nigeria. In order to reach a recycling plant
that fulfills required technical and economic specifications, a large investigation of existing
techniques was performed. This investigation revealed many techniques described in research,
but also which techniques that were used by recycling industry today. The results of these studies
became a conceptual and potential well-functioning material recycling plant for plastics which is
fully automatic. However, the focus of this development has been to sort out and recycle the most
common plastics, namely polyetene (LDPE and HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene
{PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene (PS) whereas the other plastics have been
sorted out for energy recovery. Having these delimitations, a good recycling process plant can be
achieved.

Keywords: Plastic, Recycling, Automation, Nigeria, Material Recycling.

1. Introduction
In Nigeria there are several companies that collect plastic waste from household and industry, but
there is only one company that sorts the different plastics [1]. The Nigeria government's goal for
recycling plastic waste is that 70% of all plastic used for packaging shall be recycled and 30%
(49,119 tons year 2007) of this material shall not be recycled as fuel [2]Because of this, there is a
market for recycling plants that separate plastic waste in Nigeria. It is for this reason a company
supports in developing a concept of how to separate plastic waste from household and industries.
Nigeria wished to investigate the possibilities to invest in a, if possible, fully automated recycling
plant that would have the capacity to process the amount of plastic waste that Nigeria collects at
this time. If the plant gains a greater capacity than required today, it will mean that Nigeria would
have the possibility to attain market share from their competitors.
The amount of plastic waste that Nigeria collects is about 200 tons per month. Waste like wood,
paper and metal is roughly separated manually, and then the plastic is sold to the plant in Nigeria
that sorts it.[1]

2. Aim
The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility to create an automated plastic recycling plant
in Nigeria. A possible solution should be able to implement both technically and economically.

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The goal of this paper will be to present one or several solutions of a plant that shall be able to sort,
clean and granulate plastic waste from households and industries.

3.Methodology

This paper contains a literature study of technologies of the possibilities to sort plastics and other
materials, interviewees with experts in the subject and industrial visits on automated recycling
plants and traditional recycling plants.

The approach of a project, according to Ulrich and Eppinger [3], is divided in several stages:
planning, conceptual development, design on system level, detail design, testing and calibration.
The approach in this project is similar but with two differences, testing and calibration. The
project that is described in this paper was entirely theoretical, and although there were no
possibilities to construct an automated plant due to lack of time, the possibilities to construct a
plant dose still exist. Because of this, no testing and calibration were performed; instead, the
different solutions were existing .solutions in the industry. The assignment to investigate the
possibility to construct a fully automated recycling plant for plastic waste was performed.

3.1 Planning
Nigeria's aim and strategy and a market evaluation of plastic waste determined the paper's aim
and specification. The specifications where based on the market evaluation.

3.2Concept development
To be able to develop a concept for an automated plastic recycling plant, the process of recycling
the plastics was divided into smaller sub-processes. Because of the aim of the project, the main
sub-processes were selected as sorting, cleaning and granulating the plastic. Concepts for sorting
and cleaning were discovered and discussed. Because of the limitations of this project, the
granulation concept was not explored. The main inspiration in the concept development comes
from papers and reports found in research databases.

3.3. System design development

In this part of the project, the main sub-process specifications were shaped to fulfill die
requirements of the sub-process in the automated plastic recycling plant. Besides making the
specifications of the plant, the order of the processes was investigated as well.

To be able to evaluate the different equipment and technologies efficiently, two different
evaluation methods where used. Screening and Scoring. Both methods use the six following steps
[3].
Create a matrix that contains the different alternatives and the different criteria
Evaluate the different alternatives from the criteria
Rank the different alternatives depending on which who fulfill the criteria best
Combine and improve the alternative
Select one or more alternative(s)
Evaluate the result and the process
Screening is a rough evaluation used for neglecting alternatives that not fulfill the criteria as good
as the other alternatives. [3]Scoring is a more precise method to evaluate different alternatives
with comparing to screening, to get better precise evaluation weighting is used. This method is

57
performed in the same way as screening, a reference alternative is selected and the other
alternatives are compared with this. The solution alternatives from the screening that was
selected to continue is used in the scoring. [3]

3.4 Compatibility
Once the most promising equipment and technologies were selected, the compatibility was
investigated, as the equipment has to be able to function together. The incoming material is one of
the most important factors, and affects the compatibility between the equipment. Because of this,
all of the equipment could not be used together to create an effective automated plant for plastic
recycling.

4. Requirements of the automated plant

The three main tasks of the plant are to sort, clean and, if needed, granulate the recycled plastics.
The different stages of sorting the incoming waste were selected as follows.
Separate plastics and non-plastics
Separate rigid plastic components and non-rigid plastic components
Separate coloured plastic and non-coloured plastic
Sort the different plastic types

The different sorts of plastics selected were PET -polyethylene terephthalate, PP - polypropylene,
LDPE -low density polyethylene, HDPE - high density polyethylene, PVC - polyvinyl chloride,
PS - polystyrene and other plastics [4]. All producers of plastic packages are recommended to
mark their products after these plastic materials, and this is the reason why those plastics are
selected for sorting.

Requirements for cleaning and granulating the plastic depend much on the customer that will buy
the plastic. The part of the plant that will clean the plastic has to fulfill the government's
environmental regulation so as to not contaminate the water or environment [5].
Due to a lack of time, the project concentrated on finding equipment and techniques for cleaning
and sorting plastic. The equipment of today for granulating plastic was assumed to be able to
handle the incoming material, and was therefore neglected,

5.Theoretical state-of-the-art
To be able to sort the incoming material in the plant different technologies were investigated,
research articles and papers were collected and the different technologies were selected. In total,
the following nine different technologies were selected for evaluation and the technologies
where:
1.Infrared spectroscopy - Identification of material by using infrared light [6].
2.Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) - Uses the same technology as the infrared, but only in the
near infrared spectrum [7].
3.Electrostatic identification - Identification of materials by measuring the materials' ability to
lose an electric charge over time [8],
4.Flotation - Identification of material by using the materials' density [9].
5.Fluorescent markers - The plastic is marked by a substance/substances containing
information about what type of plastic it is [10].
6.Laser - A laser heats up the surface of die material, and the material's ability to conduct heat is
measured, making it possible to identify the material [11}.
7.Vision/optical gray scale - This technology compares an object against the background and
referents colour to detect brighter and darker objects. Filters and different light can be used to

58
 identify objects with specific colours, but the main purpose is to identify brighter and darker
objects [12].
8.Vision/optical colour scale - A technology that has the ability to identify objects with different
colours [13].
9.Ultrasound - When a sound wave with high frequency travels through an object, the sound
waves become weakened by the material's ability to absorb sound waves. By comparing the
sound before and after it passed through the object, it is possible to identify that object [14].

6.Industrial state-of-the-art
To be able to evaluate the different technologies from research papers and see if it is possible to
use them in today's equipment, an investigation of industrial equipment for sorting plastic waste
was performed. Thiswas performed for equipment that has the ability to clean or sort plastics. In
total, two machines for cleaning and sixteen machines for different sorting operations were
found.
6.1 Cleaning
1. MR75/MR110 - Cleans plastics without water and requires the plastic flakes (30-50 mm in
diameter) [15].
2. KS-WLC300-2B - Cleans plastics with water/fluid and no requirements on the
incoming material [I6].

6.2 Sorting

1.Gassner Retec: A machine constructed only for separate rigid and non-rigid plastics [17].
2.Rotating disks: A machine with the same purpose as Gassner retec, mainly used today to
separate different types of paper and cardboard [18].
3.Flotation: Plastics are sorted by density in a chain of vats with fluids which have different
densities [19].
4.Centrifuge:Same principle as flotation, but requires less water; the objects to be separated
must be relatively small [20].
5.Criterion plus: Sorts different kinds of plastics, requiring some manual labour with
incoming material [21].
6.MSS Vydar: Uses x-ray to sort two different types of plastic flakes [22].
7.MSS Sapphire: Uses NIR sensors to identify five of the selected plastics [23 j.
8.MSS Binary BottleSort: Sorts five of the selected plastics, but only rigid plastic [24].
9.MSS Aladdin: Developed for sorting plastic bottles, maximum tree kinds [25].
10.Scanmaster II: Sorts plastics by colour [26].
11.Colour vision sensor: Sorts objects by colour or colour combinations [27].
12.Photocell: Uses a reflector to identify transparent and non-transparent objects [27],
13.Colour photocell: Sorts objects by colour [27],
14.MSS Plastic ElpacTM: Sorts plastic and metal, magnetic and non-magnetic. Requires
small objects, flakes [28].
15. Magnets:Five types of techniques using magnets were investigated as well. Static
magnet [29].
7. Concept of automated plastic recycling plants

The evaluation of Screening, Scoring and the compatibility resulted in two different alternatives
for automated plastic recycling plants, one alternative that is realistic and plausible with today's
equipment, and one alternative possible to implement in the future. Both of the alternatives use
the same solution to clean and granulate the plastics, but the sorting processes differ.

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7.1 Sort order
To be able to decide the order to sort die incoming material the products of the automated plastic
recycling plant have to be known. Plastic that is non-rigid, coloured or non-coloured, have a no
aftermarket more then as fuel in a thermal power plant or in some other thermal combustion plant.
For this reason there are no interest of sorting non-rigid plastic by type, the non-rigid plastic shall
only be sorted out from the main stream of material [1]. Plastic that is of a larger interest is rigid
plastic and most non-colored rigid plastics, this plastic have a higher aftermarket price. Non-
colored rigid plastic that are clean, no mix of plastic types, are of highest value and therefor of
high interest to be sorted by type.
The order to sort the incoming material to the automated plastic recycling plant is the following
five steps.
1. Magnetic and non-magnetic metal is separated from the main stream of material; this is done
to prevent damage to the plant's equipment
2. Non-plastic is separated from the main stream of material; non-plastic material is unwanted
3. Non-rigid plastic are separated from the main stream of material.
4. Coloured and non-coloured rigid plastic - The stream of rigid plastic is separated into two
flows, coloured and non-coloured rigid plastics; a mix of coloured and not coloured plastics
decreases the value of the recycled plastic, and thus the reason for this separation.
5. Plastic types - Separation of non-coloured and coloured rigid plastic types, a mix of plastics
decreases the value of the recycled plastic and thus the reason for this separation

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7.2 Alternative 1 - Technology of today

This alternative solution of an automated plastic recycling plant uses equipment that is available
on the market today. The different sorting stages are the same.

The first sorting step in this solution uses a magnetic roll together with a transport belt that
separates magnetic and non-magnetic metal. The speed of the transport belt moves heavier
material such as aluminium and other nonmagnetic metals further than the rest of the material,
thereby separating the material. The magnetic material is driven towards the magnetic roll, by the
magnetic field, and does not follow the main flow of material downwards.

The second sorting station sorts wood, paper and cardboard from the main flow of material; the
technique that is used is called Electrostatic Identification/Charge Relaxation. The different
materials' ability to electrically relax makes it possible to sort the material.

The third sorting stage uses the Gassner retec machine to mechanically separate non-rigid
plastics from rigid plastics. This is made only by the soft and rigid plastics' different mechanical
properties.

To perform the fourth sorting stage, a colour sensor combined with a reflector is used to sort non-
coloured plastics from coloured plastics. The sensor uses the plastics' visual properties to sort the
plastic.

The last step of the sorting process is performed by the Criterion plus machine, which uses a
combination of optical sensors and NIR-sensors to sort different plastics.

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 7.3.Alternative 2 - Fluorescent Marking
This alternative uses the technique of fluorescent markers to
perform the most of the sorting stages mentioned in previously in
7.1. Sorting order.
The first of the five sorting steps are made by the same components
described in the previous solution, magnetic roll, and the purpose is
the same as well.
The four other sorting steps use the technique of fluorescent
iruirkers combined with a pneumatic system for sorting the
incoming material. There are pneumatic systems that have the
capability to sort out two different materials from the main flow at
one pneumatic station. One material is sorted upwards, while the
other material is sorted downwards.

8. Conclusions
Both the alternatives for automated plastic recycling plants work if
all the requirements are fulfilled. A common requirement for both
alternatives is that the incoming material should be spread on to the
conveyor instead of pressed plastic bundles. Alternative one,
Fluorescent Marking, also requires that all incoming material shall
be

marked in a predefined way, and that the marking shall

be able to be interpreted independent of which
orientation the material has on the conveyor. The
common requirements to spread material onto a
conveyor are possible to solve even today. There are
several different types of equipments that solve this
problem. Florescent Marking requires that all incoming
plastic to industry and households should be marked.
To be able to do this, there must be a global standard
plastic marking. Both alternatives are technically and economically realistic and able to perform.
The economic difference is that the automated recycling plant with today's technology can be
purchased today, and thereby realized faster. The theoretical section in this paper treats sorting of
pure plastic i.e. non-mixed plastics. The effect of how the sorting will be affected of mixed
plastics is not known, and needs; to be investigated further.

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1. Nilsson T. (2008), manager at IL Recycling Partner AB, Linkoping, Nigeria, personal

communication.
2. Repa, Registration of Production Responsibility, information found at www.repa.se accessed
2008- 11-21.
3. Ulrich K.T. and Eppinger S.D. (2008) Product Design andDevelopment, McGraw-Hill/lrwin,
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4. McCrum KG, Buckley C.P. and Bucknall C.B. (2007). Principles of polymer engineering,
Oxford science publications,Hampshire.
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13. Acept, Department of Physics and Astronomy, ArizonaState University,
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