what to do with old plastic? The Freiburg-based company Polysecure simplifies the Recycling by using early markers.

plastic pellets: The great art is, a pure sorting photo: Reuters

FREIBURG taz | plastic varieties to get pure separate – to allow for a new technology, the Freiburg-based company Polysecure developed just. The procedure not only in the sorting plant: packaging is already in production with the imprint of a tiny marker with a fluorescent substance, which allows a rapid and reliable separation from the waste stream.

Yet is it just possible to separate different types of plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. But that is not yet won much. Different plasticizers or stabilizers, ensure that there are so many different varieties of polyethylene, of high-quality plastics are produce of a mixture of these varieties.

you Want to focus on the plastic recycling rate, as the Federal government-until 2022 to 63 percent, what is needed is a method that only exactly identical plastics together. And such has developed Polysecure.

In the case of the markers used by the company, is a mineral like substance on the Basis of the element Yttrium. It specifically introduces foreign atoms into the crystal structure, to obtain individual fluorescence.

Like the fuel impinging light in different colors is reflected, which leads to the head of the company Jochen Moesslein, the physicist and economist, at the same time vividly: He aimed an infrared laser at various samples of the grayish mark powder. A lights up in bright Green, a bluish-purple. So far, you can do 45 unique color codes, says the entrepreneur.

brand new the procedure is not for Polysecure – to protect against plagiarism, it was used already, says the head of the company. He reports from a company that always substandard goods got sent in by the customer, but hard was able to prove that the returns were only counterfeits. Today, the original marked goods, the product counterfeiting is to fly immediately.

Impressive is the small quantities that are needed are: "We make Experiments with 100 micro-grams per package," says Moesslein. This is a ten-thousandth of a gram. Of "fairy dust" once wrote a business magazine. The Marker is inert, reactive, non-water-soluble and up to 800 degree temperature stable. He could be added to the printing ink and, for example, on the white surface of the Barcodes on the packaging to be applied.

A determination is Moesslein important: Polysecure'm not working with nanoparticles. Thus, particles whose diameter is less than 100 nano-meters. The effect of such substances on man and nature is still unclear; the smallest among the industrially available nano particles are so tiny that they penetrate through the skin into the body. Such substances, says Moesslein, not he wanted to bring it into circulation. For this, he is aware of the need to be very ecologically.

venture capital flows in Germany, especially in digital business, hardly in engineering, physics or chemistry

A year, will it still need to develop the technology to market maturity, estimates of the business owner. The industry show already interested.

investors Here is not to be found, of course, says the 55-Year-old. In Germany, most of risk capital in the digital flow currently. In engineering, physics, chemistry, and remain meanwhile, some good idea on the track.

The Vision, the concerns, the 14-member Polysecure Team, sounds good anyway: "it is Our goal," says Moesslein, "to allow plastic rezyclat, which has the same quality as new". Ideally even cheaper.