Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Recycling of Waste Plastics
Toshiaki Yoshioka and Guido Grause
Abstract Society produces more plastics than steel every year, and these pose
major challenges in resource recycling. The principles of 3R are introduced and
their application to plastics. Obtaining high-value products from recycling of the
many different varieties of plastics in the waste stream is a major challenge for col-
lection, separation and chemical processing. The main processes used for the major
plastics (including PET, PVC composites etc.) are introduced and the legal and
administrative framework for plastics recycling in Japan described. For instance,
PET can be recycled as raw material for reprocessing PET, but other types of plas-
tics pose major challenges and are often recycled for only low value uses such as
a source of heat. This chapter looks at current approaches to recycling plastics and
how it may be possible to convert them into higher-value raw materials.
Keywords PET recycling · PVC · Plastic recycling · 3Rs · Energy recovery
11.1
Introduction
In the modern world, life without plastics is unthinkable since it is used in every part
of our daily life—for bringing groceries home, for clothing, transportation, enter-
tainment, in medical equipment, and many other applications. Most plastic goods
are used only for a very limited time and thrown away after use, so that society must
manage large amounts of waste in order to protect the environment, human health,
and reduce the use of resources and land.
Only about 100 years have passed since the first commercial use of the synthetic
macromolecular materials we call plastics. Celluloid made from cellulose as a bio-
derived resource, nitric acid, and camphor was already purchased from the 1880s as
a predecessor to modern plastics. The high availability of crude oil exploited from
the 1860s however, caused the development of bio-based materials to end. With
the development of chemicals by new petrochemical routes, the first fully synthetic
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