Recycling of Plastics

Recycling of Plastics
INTRODUCTION
Recycling of plastics not only helps the conservation of raw materials
but also reduces the pollution of the environment. Different processes for
recycling of plastics are described in this topic. The method of recovery of plastics
from variety for wastes are also outlined in this topic.
Plastic in solid wastes are a great problem in the environment
for their indestructible nature. It is not surprising not learn that the overall growth of
solid wastes. Presently it is estimated that the generation of solid waste per capita
is around 1/2 kg which is likely to increase to I kg by the year 2000. Plastics as
wastes constitute around 4 wt %-5 wt % of solid waste. Almost 80 % of this
recyclable waste is collected by the rag pickers at source from the garbage
dumps. The balance 20 % goes to land filling.
In 1993, consumption of virgin plastics was 1.44 Mt (production
being 0.92 Mt and imports were 0.52 Mt) Besides 0.13 Mt plastics wastes was
reprocessed (amounted to 0.53 Mt) in India during 1993. This, the total
consumption of plastics in India during 1993 was around 2 Mt. It is predicted that by
the year 2000, consumption of virgin plastics will be 3.3 Mt and reprocessed plastics
will be 1.3 Mt (thus total consumption will be 4.6 Mt).
Govt. Poly. Washim. 1

Over a million rag pickers including plastics wastes collector are
involved and around 20000 units all over the country are engaged at present in
reprocessing around 0.4 Mt of plastic waste. It is predicted that I Mt of plastics
waste will be available by 2000. The polymer - wise share of plastics waste is
PVC - 45%, LDPE - 25%, HDPE-20%\ PP - 7.6% and others like PS-2.4%.
The two important environmental problems are how to reduce
pollution of air, water and land, and how to conserve raw materials. The planned
application of existing technologies would be sufficient to avoid any serious risks
of direct or transferred pollution by plastics wastes. Recycling of plastics is
currently believed to be the most acceptable route to solve the above problems in the
long run.
In addition to these, recycling of plastics will supplement the
requirement of plastics raw materials and reduce the import of plastic raw materials
in the country.

SOURCES OF PLASTICS WASTE
Creation of waste occurs in three main areas :
a) During manufacture of the polymer;
b) During manufacture of the product; and
c) During the disposal of the product after use.
Figure 1 shows the flow of materials from the polymer producer until
it reaches the waste dump. This shows that primary as well as secondary raw
materials are absorbed, resulting from in-plant recycling and reclaiming. Plastics
reclaimers obtain their raw materials in the form of wastes from polymer producer,
plastic processor and industrial end users and converters.

Primary Raw Material
Polymer Producer
Reprocessing
Commercial
Reclalmers Plastic Processors and Industrial
Waste
Reprocessing
Industrial End Users and

converters
Repeated Reuse
Private and Official Domestic

Households Waste
Flow of Material From Polymer Producer to the Waste Dump

PROCESSES OF RECYCLING OF PLASTICS
Recycling describes the actual process for usefully employing the
recovered raw materials. There are three processes available for recycling of
plastics.
a) Direct recycling
This would be the use of recovered material for the manufacture of
identical or similar products;
b) Indirect recycling
This would imply the use of the recovered or salvaged material for the
manufacture or use of a product of less critical specification.
c) Thermal recycling
This implies that conversion of waste under conditions which generate
either energy or chemical products or both.
Direct Recycling of Plastics
This is mainly applicable to the wastes which arise during the
production processes within the plastics industry.

For direct recycling, waste plastics must satisfy three requirements :
a) Satisfactory from (granules, pellets, powders etc.),
b) Homogeneity, because mixed grades of plastics will not possess the
required properties for most processes or products; and
c) Cleanliness, because contaminants such as dust, stray matter, oil etc. would
degrade the quality of the product.
Clean process waste may be recycled by a relatively simple route as
shown in Fig. 2

Virgin
Material
Processing Good
Machine Product Product
Processing
Cooling Waste Rejects
Regular
Granules Rechip
Extrude Recompound
Recycling Direct On Processing Machine

Irregular shaped waste from production must be converted to a
consistent shape by a regranulation technique which involves a minimum of
temperature degradation. The introduction of irregular chips into a hopper
containing regular virgin granules causes preferential feeding of one component
in the hopper due to different flow-characteristic. The alternative to regranulation
lies in remixing or reextruding the rechipped material, so that it may then be cut
into regular granules like the virgin compounds.
The recycling of thermoplastic scrap from extrusion, injection
moulding, blow moulding, calendering, thermoforming and moulding operations has
always been a regular part of industrial practice and is one of the main reasons from
economical point of view for plastics with respect to other materials. In-plant
recycling is easy, the nature of the material is known an any defective products can
be internally recycled in the works provided that mixing of different wastes does not
occur.
Indirect Recycling of Plastic
Indirect recycling was defined earlier as the use of plastics
wastes for the manufacture of products having a less demanding specification than
that of the original product. In the case of plastics wastes the importance of

downgrading the reuse may be the possibility of avoiding the requirements of
homogeneity and cleanliness which are fundamental to direct recycling.
In general, a process of indirect recycling would normally
commence with shredding and mixing of the thermoplastic wastes and
incorporation at this stage of compounding ingredients. This product would
then be compacted into granules and fed to a processing machine for the production
of the final product. The general sequence can be represented by flow diagram as
shown in fig. 3.

Waste
Material
Granulator or
Shredders
Compounding
Ingredients Mixture
Extruder
Regular
Granules
Processing
Machine
Product
Flow Diagram of Indirect Recycling

Thermal Recycling of Plastics
In thermal recycling, heat is generated and used (of course, once
only), so that the consumption of fossil fuels can be reduced.
The following three methods are used in thermal recycling of
plastics:
Incineration
The first method of thermal recycling of plastics waste is
incineration. Incineration is the term used for the combustion and
reduction to an inert residue of any combustible waste. Incineration can be used
as a means of plastic waste disposal and incinerators may be used to produce
steam for domestic heating and the generation of electricity.
In the incinerator the combustion takes place at high temperature
(around 7000 C) in the presence of the requisite amount of oxygen. Since the plastics
present in waste consist mainly of carbon and hydrogen, the product obtained after
combustion should consist mainly of carbon dioxide and water.
Incineration is not usually favored as a method of disposal because
of very high capital, maintenance and operating costs, unreliability and
adverse environmental impact. Problems are added when incineration is combined
with generation of steam and the output to be controlled to suit customer demand.

PVC has received considerable criticism since HCI gas is evolved on
combustion for long term use, the incineration may be a favored and economical
method to dispose of all the plastics exclusive of PVC from the incinerator to
safeguard it from the problems associated with evolution of HCI, the other plastics
could be readily utilized as a high energy fuel, because they have considerably
high caloric value.
Pyrolysis
The second method of thermal recycling to plastics waste is heated
to a higher temperature in an inert atmosphere, possibly under pressure. This
process is sometimes called destructive destination where the decomposition
products formed may be used for producing fuels, energy and primary chemicals.
Plastics are considered as assets in pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is not yet entirely
satisfactory, because there is not yet, sufficient information about the reactions
which take place during pyrolysis. It has, therefore, not yet been possible to control
the processes accurately.
Hydrolysis
The third method of thermal recycling of plastics waste is
hydrolysis. The breaking down of plastics into their constituent raw materials

by hydrolysis, is, of course, possible if the plastic contains that groups which can
be hydrolysed. Since hydrolysis is the reverse of condensation, it is clear that
plastics which can be hydrolysed are all those made by condensation. Whether
hydrolysis is practical or not, is solely a question for the reaction conditions.
The polycondensation products which also include plastics
produced by polyaddition, encompass such as polyamides, polyesters,
polycarbonates, polyureas and polyurethanes. Hydrolysis involves the specific
reaction of the water molecule at the point of linkage with the starting materials (this
is the reverse of the reaction that produced the polymer originally), so that the
starting materials used originally are recovered directly. The groups of plastics
mentioned above as being hydrolysable are all resistant to hydrolysis under normal
conditions use. Hydrolysis must be induced under extreme conditions.

PROCESSES OF RECOVERY OF PLASTICS
Recovery describes the process of collecting and/or segregating
homogeneous wastes for reuse, mainly in-plant or within the organization.
Depending on the types of plastics waste, the processes available for the
recovery are the following two :
Recovery of Plastics from Relatively Pure Waste
Relatively uncontaminated plastics waste is available from the
polymer producer as well as from the plastic processor. The waste is homogeneous
in nature unless it is allowed to mix with other types of plastics. Recovery at this
stage is rather simple. It is a traditional technique to recover the wastes produced
during polymer production or plastics processing and blend them with virgin
material. If these waste are allowed to become mixed and/or contaminated, they may
be of little value and find their way into industrial wastes. Where such wastes are
available in bulk quantities, it may be more economical to sort and grade them and
sell to reclaimers.
Recovery of Plastics from Mixed Plastics Wastes

Mixed plastics waste, thermoplastics packaging waste mainly consist
of the five most important thermoplastics -LDPE, HDPE, PP, PS and PVC. A scheme
of separation for the five components has been shown based on the sink-float
method. This scheme relies on the use of fluids differing in composition and density.
A diagram of the scheme is shown in Fig. 4. the process requires chopping
/shredding or grinding of mixed plastics waste in a shredder or a grinder and also
washing throughly with running water to eliminate dust and external contamination.

A Sink Float Method For Isolating the Thermoplastics in Four Liquids
Differing In Density d(g/ml)
CONCLUSION

Recycling of plastics is possible when the recycled plastic is equal in
quality and not higher in cost than the virgin raw material. These two constraints
which effectively limit recycling at present, due to the cost of reclaiming or
salvaging followed by the further cost of sorting, grading and cleansing.
Thus, the waste occurred as a result of primary production is to
be recycled because recovery cost will be small and it is less likely to be
contaminated, while at the end of the user chain, the reverse will be true. At every
stage of production, distribution and consumption, there is a decline in quality of the
waste, for the purpose of recycling and a rise in the cost of reclaiming.
REFERENCES
1) Engineering Chemistry

R. Gopalan
D. Venkappayya
S. Nagarajan
2) Organic Chemistry

Recycling of Plastics

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Recycling of Plastics

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Recycling of Plastics

Recycling of plastics not only helps the conservation of raw materials

from variety for wastes are also outlined in this topic.

Plastic in solid wastes are a great problem in the environment

is around 1/2 kg which is likely to increase to I kg by the year 2000. Plastics as

wastes constitute around 4 wt %-5 wt % of solid waste. Almost 80 % of this

dumps. The balance 20 % goes to land filling.

In 1993, consumption of virgin plastics was 1.44 Mt (production

will be 1.3 Mt (thus total consumption will be 4.6 Mt).

Govt. Poly. Washim. 1

Over a million rag pickers including plastics wastes collector are

reprocessing around 0.4 Mt of plastic waste. It is predicted that I Mt of plastics

The two important environmental problems are how to reduce

application of existing technologies would be sufficient to avoid any serious risks

of direct or transferred pollution by plastics wastes. Recycling of plastics is

In addition to these, recycling of plastics will supplement the

Govt. Poly. Washim. 2

SOURCES OF PLASTICS WASTE

Creation of waste occurs in three main areas :

a) During manufacture of the polymer;

b) During manufacture of the product; and

c) During the disposal of the product after use.

plastic processor and industrial end users and converters.

Govt. Poly. Washim. 3

Primary Raw Material

Industrial End Users and

Private and Official Domestic

Flow of Material From Polymer Producer to the Waste Dump

Govt. Poly. Washim. 4

PROCESSES OF RECYCLING OF PLASTICS

Recycling describes the actual process for usefully employing the

This would be the use of recovered material for the manufacture of

identical or similar products;

manufacture or use of a product of less critical specification.

This implies that conversion of waste under conditions which generate

either energy or chemical products or both.

Direct Recycling of Plastics

This is mainly applicable to the wastes which arise during the

production processes within the plastics industry.

Govt. Poly. Washim. 5

For direct recycling, waste plastics must satisfy three requirements :

a) Satisfactory from (granules, pellets, powders etc.),

b) Homogeneity, because mixed grades of plastics will not possess the

required properties for most processes or products; and

degrade the quality of the product.

Clean process waste may be recycled by a relatively simple route as

Govt. Poly. Washim. 6

Recycling Direct On Processing Machine

Govt. Poly. Washim. 7

Irregular shaped waste from production must be converted to a

consistent shape by a regranulation technique which involves a minimum of

temperature degradation. The introduction of irregular chips into a hopper

containing regular virgin granules causes preferential feeding of one component

in the hopper due to different flow-characteristic. The alternative to regranulation

into regular granules like the virgin compounds.

The recycling of thermoplastic scrap from extrusion, injection

moulding, blow moulding, calendering, thermoforming and moulding operations has

Indirect Recycling of Plastic

Indirect recycling was defined earlier as the use of plastics

Govt. Poly. Washim. 8

downgrading the reuse may be the possibility of avoiding the requirements of

homogeneity and cleanliness which are fundamental to direct recycling.

In general, a process of indirect recycling would normally