Packaging materials, recycling recovery

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF RECYCLING AND RECOVERY OF HOUSEHOLDS PLASTICS WASTE PACKAGING MATERIALS. SUMMARY REPORT APME... 

Wooden pallets are often used only once and disposed of afterward. Approximately 171 million of the 400 to 500 million pallets are recovered and used as fuel. The new packaging waste directive of EU (2004/12/EU), prescribing recycling targets for packaging materials also includes wooden packaging and its recovery. For example, in Finland about 90 percent of wooden packaging is recovered and used as fuel. ... 

E. Plinke and K. Kaempf, Ecological, Economical, and Technical Limits to Recycling of Packaging Materials, in R 95 Recovery, Recycling, Re-integration, Proc. Cong. pp. 1.179-180, 1995. 

APME (Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe) Life Cycle Analysis of Recycling and Recovery of Household Plastics Waste Packaging Materials. Summary Report (1995). 

Today no chapter on any packaging material is complete without a reference to the problems it may create in terms of disposal, pollution, litter, and the four Rs recovery, recycle, reuse and reduce (e.g. light weighting). 

Recycling of polymer materials is also increasingly desirable due to the overall environmental and social benefits, particularly for plastics from post-consumer waste. Energy recovery from plastic waste and the biodegradation of packaging materials are other areas of recent development. 

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