 3295077 Tons of plastic waste dumped in ocean

 We have an island in the middle of the North Pacific

Gyre, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – which is
mostly composed of plastic. It’s the size of India,
Europe and Mexico combined.
 90 % of sea bird have plastic in their stomach
 One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals
are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
 Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the
earth four times.
 It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.
 Recycling one ton of plastic saves the equivalent of
1,000 to 2,000 gallons of gasoline. One ton of plastic
is around 25,000 plastic bottles
 Reduces methane emission from landfill
 Reduces emission OF GHG from incinerators
 Reduces emission from energy consumption
 Increases storage of carbon in trees.
 Prevention

Minimization

Reuse

Material Recycling

Incineration with energy recovery

Incineration without energy recovery

Landfill
 Recycling can be defined as the diversion of
materials from the solid waste stream for use as
raw materials in the manufacture of new
products.
 Closed-Loop Recycling
 Refers to the recycling of a particular material back
into a similar product;
 for example, the recycling of glass bottles back into
new glass bottles
 Today plastic accounts for 50% of primary food
packaging
 Mainly rigid plastic materials are recycled. PET
providing greatest tonnage followed by HDPE and
PP.
An international system of
coding is used to identify types
of plastics for the purpose of
recycling. codes 1 and 2 are
most widely recyclable.
 Recycling process
 Collection
 Sorting
 Reclamation
 Determine the purity and value of the secondary
raw material.
 Collection Methods:
 Individual bin system
 Bring system
 Commingled System
 Sorting adds significantly to the cost of
producing clean streams of materials for
recycling
 Sorting done manually at MRF (Material Recovery
Facility)
 Commingled material sent down a conveyor belt
and ‘’pickers’’ remove specific items by hand.
 Sorting

PCR PET HDPE Mixed plastic

fraction fraction fraction
 Sorting
Material collected from household
Procedure at MRF

Hand Sorting Cartoon boxes newspaper

Magnetic separation Steel cans

Aluminium cans and tray

Eddy current separation

Clear, amber and green

Hand sorting (glass) glass

Clear, amber and green

Hand sorting (plastic) PET bottles; HDPE
containers, Miscellaneous
 After sorting, PCR PET is washed, ground to
produce flakes of 4–20 mm in size and then
washed again.
 LDPE and PP (mainly from closures) is
undesirable and so a separation technique
based on flotation in the presence of
surfactants is employed.
 Drying is the final operation, after which the
PCR PET flakes are ready to be recycled.
 Recycling
Process

Chemical Multilayer
Mechanical
Recycling Extrusion
 Defined as reprocessing the PCR PET without
changing the chemical structure.
 Steps involved are:

Washing using detergent or caustic alkali at 80 0C

Separation to remove lower density materials < 1.0 (PP,

LDPE) in hydrocyclone

Final washing, drying and sorting of flakes

Secondary treatment involving further drying (to
avoid hydrolytic degradation on melting)

Extrusion (to remove absorbed volatile organics)

Melt filtration (to remove nonmelting particles)

Extruded and cut into pellets

 More complicated and energy intensive than
mechanical recycling
 Involves breaking down of polymer chain by
treatment with chemicals
 Two commercial technology are :
 Methanolysis: Methanol at 250 0C
 Glycolysis: EG at 240 0C
Both cleave easter bond in polymer to form monomer
A third chemical recycling process is
hydrolysis using mineral acids or sodium
hydroxide to produce TPA (Terepthalic acid)
and EG.
 PCR PET middle layer is surrounded on both
side by virgin PET.
 There should be 0.025 mm thick inner virgin
PET layer to prevent food contact by the PCR
PET layer.
 Preform manufacturing process is too
expensive and too slow.
 Sorted PET bottles

Grinding, washing, Conventional recycling

removal of caps and
labels
PET flakes

180 0C -230 0C, 1-2 h Decontamination

Inert gas or vacuum

Super clean PET

flakes
 Re-extrusion (optional)
a 2800C -2900C,

vacuum degasing

Amorphous PET flakes

Crystallization
(optional)

Crystalline PET flakes

 The energy saved by recycling one plastic
drink bottle will power a computer for 25
minutes.
 Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy
as burning it in an incinerator
 Disposal of plastic waste is a serious concern in India. New
technologies have been developed to minimize their
adverse effect on the environment.

Figure 1: Co-processing of plastic waste plastic Waste Management

 Polymer Blended Bitumen Road
 A brief description of the technique used in laying road
using plastic waste is given in figure.
 Co-processing of Plastic waste in Cement Kiln

 Co-processing of plastic waste as Alternative Fuel and

Raw Material (AFR).

 Co-processing indicate substitution of primary fuel and raw

material by waste.

 Waste material such as plastic waste used for co-processing are

referred to as alternative fuels and raw material (AFR).

 One of the advantage of recovery method used in existing facility

is eliminating the need to invest on other plastic waste practices
and to secure land filling.
 Plasma Pyrolysis Technology (PPT)

 Pyrolysis is the thermal disintegration of carbonaceous

material in oxygen-starved atmosphere.

 The intense and versatile heat generation capabilities of

Plasma Pyrolysis technology enable it to dispose of all
types of plastic waste including polymeric, biomedical and
hazardous waste in a safe and reliable manner.

 When optimized, the most likely compounds formed are

methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen carbon dioxide and
water molecules.
 Conversion of Plastics Waste into liquid fuel

 The entire process is undertaken in closed reactor vessel

followed by condensation, if required.

 Waste plastics while heating upto 2700 to 3000 C convert

into liquid-vapour state, which is collected in condensation
chamber in the form of liquid fuel.

 The liquid waste is topped-down from the heating reactor

vessel.

 The organic gas is generated which can be used in dual

fuel diesel generator set for generation of electricity.