Recent Developments In Plastic Recycling

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the recent developments in the recycling of plastic waste material. It presents state-of-the-art procedures for recycling of plastics from different sources and various characterization methods adopted in analyzing their properties. In addition, it looks into properties, processing, and applications of recycled plastic products as one of the drivers for sustainable recycling plastics especially in developing countries. This book proves a useful reference source for both engineers and researchers working in composite materials science as well as the students attending materials science, physics, chemistry, and engineering courses.

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the recent developments in the recycling of plastic waste material. It presents state-of-the-art procedures for recycling of plastics from different sources and various characterization methods adopted in analyzing their properties. In addition, it looks into properties, processing, and applications of recycled plastic products as one of the drivers for sustainable recycling plastics especially in developing countries. This book proves a useful reference source for both engineers and researchers working in composite materials science as well as the students attending materials science, physics, chemistry, and engineering courses.

Plastics have become one of the most prolific materials on the planet: in 2015 we produced about 380 million tonnes of plastics globally, up from 2 million tonnes in the 1950s. Yet today only 15% of this plastic waste is collected and recycled into secondary plastics globally each year. This ...

Since the discovery of plastics several decades ago, the widespread consumption of plastic products and their subsequent inappropriate disposal and accumulation have recently generated new societal concerns of waste management due to their inherent slow degradability, high volume increase and low recycling rates, which are negative on the basis of self-sustainability. Regulations imposing waste reduction, reuse and recycling indices and responsibilities, as well as effective collecting system and the development of new, environmentally clean recycling technologies are some of the efforts to achieve the self-sustainability goals. The efficiency of the collection and sorting systems impacts directly on the amount of recycled plastics and on their cleanness and quality, therefore, enlarging their market potential. The development of new recycling technologies is diversified and can be classified into mechanical, chemical and energetic recycling. In mechanical recycling, successful technologies are achieved through the improvement of existing processes using additives, blends with other plastics and alternative processing routes in order to maintain the original properties of the virgin resin and even allowing them to return to the same application as originally intended. Chemical recycling processes to obtain intermediary products for new polymers become feasible due to the cost reduction of the raw materials involved. Lastly, despite the under use of the gross energy potential of the raw materials employed, energetic recycling plants are gaining a proportion of residues whose technological solutions for separation and/or reprocessing are deficient, but which, on the other hand, are voluminous, consequently solving the problem of both residue accumulation in densely populated regions and their respective insufficient energy supplies. In this book, the authors proposed to present an overview of the current state of this whole plastic recycling sector including their recent advances, and highlighting new markets and recent trends on recycling technologies around the world. However, mechanical recycling has been emphasised owing to the experimental and published work of Manrich's workgroup at the 3R Residues Recycling Center, which has concentrated on studying all the steps in the process of mechanical recycling.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of breakthroughs on additive manufacturing for plastic material recycling to boost a circular economy. It offers new ideas of combining/hybridizing processing methods that work as a source of information for manufacturers in making new and strategic product development plans. Additive Manufacturing for Plastic Recycling: Efforts in Boosting a Circular Economy provides a critical, comprehensive, methodological, and strong state-of-the-art work on the processing of thermoplastic and thermosetting along with new directions and applications. It describes the common and hybrid approaches of recycling processes and includes theoretical and practical ideas of combining/hybridizing processing methods with the use of fused deposition modelling, which is one of the low-cost additive manufacturing techniques. The book also discusses mechanical twin-screw extrusion followed by case studies for developing hybrid composite structures for biomedical and structural applications. Recent innovations in melt processing for recycling and the fundaments, process parameters investigations, and applications for new product development are also presented. This book is a first-hand reference source of information for academic scholars and commercial manufacturers for making strategic development plans for new product development.

This book presents the state of the art on the topic of recycling of plastic building materials, comprising a synthetic market analysis, and presenting the latest developments in plastic recycling technologies. The book also makes recommendations to optimize the success of recycling and encourage the circular economy, while acknowledging the environmental and sustainability implications of plastic recycling for building construction. The distinctive features of this book are the variety of topics covered on sustainable plastic recycling, the discussion of advances in plastic recycling technology, detailed illustrations, and summarized descriptions of separation processes. This book is a guide for both technical and non-technical readers, and for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and students in plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials.

Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel. This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches