Abstract: An apparatus for continuously cleaning grossly soiled products of plastic material, such as sheets, bands, sacks or the like and for preparing the material for subsequent re-use, comprising an elongated container having at least one downwardly extended funnel-shaped portion closed by a valve, means for feeding soiled comminuted plastic material in the region of one end wall into the container in which a bath of washing solution is maintained, a partition adjacent the other end wall extending into the bath and dividing the interior of the container into a washing zone and a discharge zone, communicating with each other adjacent the bottom of the container, means for agitating the working solution and the comminuted plastic material in the washing zone, and a sieve conveyor for removing the comminuted and cleaned plastic material from the discharge zone.

Abstract: A continuous process for cleaning and preparing grossly soiled products of plastic material, such as sheets, bands, sacks or the like for subsequent re-use, in which the plastic material is comminuted after removing rough foreign objects therefrom, whereafter the comminuted plastic material is fed into a washing solution having a greater specific weight than the plastic material and subjected together with the washing solution in a washing zone to turbulence, transferred to a turbulence-free zone containing washing solution by passage under a submerged edge of a partition submerged in the washing solution and separating the washing zone from the turbulence--free zone, and thereafter subjected first to mechanical and then to a thermal drying operation.