Plastic recycling

VIDHI H. ACHARYA (MBA-IEV)

plastic
● Plastics are a group of materials, either
synthetic or naturally occurring, that may be
shaped when soft and then hardened to retain
the given shape. Plastics are polymers. A
polymer is a substance made of many
repeating units.
● Most plastics contain organic polymers.The
vast majority of these polymers are formed
from chains of "carbon atoms", "pure" or
with the addition of: oxygen, nitrogen, or
sulfur. The chains comprise many repeat units,
formed from monomers. Each polymer chain
will have several thousand repeating units.
Usage of plastic:
Why recycling is
necessary?
Plastic never degrades

Plastic contains harmful chemicals

Making new plastic rrequires significant amout of fossil fuels.

Protecting ecosystems and wildlife

The Need for Recycling Plastic:
Plastics are durable, lightweight and inexpensive materials. They can
readily be molded into various products which find uses in a plethora of
applications. Every year, more than 420 million tons of plastics are
manufactured across the globe.1 Consequently, the reuse, recovery and the
recycling of plastics are extremely important.
Types of plastic:
1. Polyethylene Terephthalate ( PET)
2. High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
3. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Out of 7 only 4 types of platic canbe
recycled.
4. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
Recyclable plastics:
5. Polypropylene (PP)
1. Polyethylene Terephthalate
6. Polystyrene or Styrofoam (PS) ( PET)
7. Miscellaneous plastics (includes: 2. High-Density Polyethylene

polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, (HDPE)

3. Low-Density Polyethylene
acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene,
(LDPE)
fiberglass, and nylon)
4. Polypropylene (PP)
5. PS
Different methods of recycling:

Methods:
Broadly, there are two major ways to recycle plastic:

(1) mechanical recycling ("chop and wash"), where the plastic is

washed, ground into powders and melted

(2) chemical recycling, where the plastic is broken down into

monomers. Before recycling, most plastics are sorted according to
their resin type.
Mechanical recycling:

➔ After sorting, for mechanical recycling the plastic

recyclables are then shredded. These shredded
fragments then undergo processes to eliminate impurities
like paper labels.

➔ This material is melted and often extruded into the form

of pellets which are then used to manufacture other
products. The highest quality purification may be referred
to as "regeneration"
Step-by-Step Process of Plastic Recycling
1. Step 1: Collection of Waste Plastic. ...
2. Step 2: Sorting of Plastics into Categories. ...
3. Step 3: Washing to Remove Impurities. ...
4. Step 4: Shredding and Resizing. ...
5. Step 5: Identification and Separation of Plastics. ...
6. Step 6: Compounding.
The benefits and challenges of mechancial recycling:

Benefits:

1. Recycling plastic conserves the natural resources and energy that is required
to produce virgin plastic.
2. When plastic is recycled, less plastic is sent to landfill and thus, less of this
material takes up room in our environment for hundreds of years.
3. Making new products from recycled plastic packaging materials is more than
three times more efficient in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than
manufacturing those same products with virgin raw materials, mainly because of
the energy savings in recycled versus virgin content product manufacturing.
facts:
● Americans recycled 3.02 million tons of plastics in 2018,
up from 3 million in 2017.5
● Currently, around 50% of plastics we use are thrown
away just after a single use.6
Plastic products have become
● Plastics accounted for 12% of total global waste an integral part of all our lives,
generation in 2016.7 and play an irreplaceable role
in our day-to-day activities.
● Plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade
● The plastics that end up in the oceans break down into
small pieces and every year around 100,000 marine n

mammals and one million seabirds are killed by this

pollution.
Opportunity:

Recycling is critical to effective end-of-life plastic management. Increasing

recycling rates have resulted from greater public awareness and the increased
effectiveness of recycling operations. Operational efficiency will be supported by
ongoing investment in research and development.

Recycling of a greater range of post-consumer plastic products and packaging will

further boost recycling and divert more end-of-life plastic wastes from landfills.
Industry and policymakers can also help stimulate recycling activity by requiring
or incentivizing the use of recycled resin versus virgin plastics.