Recycling commingled plastics

Recycling commingled plastics are plastics not sorted by type in a waste system. The unsorted plastics is combined or blended into one harmonious material. 

As mentioned, one application for recycled commingled plastics is in plastic lumber. The plastic lumber business has grown rapidly in the last five years. Not aU plastic lumber is made using recycled plastics, but much of it is. Some companies using recycled plastics for plastic lumber use mixed plastics, and others use relatively pure streams of material. Some use primarily postconsumer materials, while others use mostly industrial scrap. 

Of course, these troubles are exalted when recycling commingled plastics. In this case, beyond the problems highlighted above, there is generally no chance to choose the composition, and the presence of small quantities of contaminants can compromise the whole process. To avoid or at least to reduce these phenomena, stabilizers and compatibilizers are not optional. 

With some systems, relatively brief light exposure is enough to start the breakdown, which can continue in darkness. These methods must be carefully tailored to the application so that the normal service life of the plastic article remains unaffected. There is also concern that such materials, if introduced into a recycled commingled plastics feed stream, could have deleterious effects on the stability of the resulting product during normal use. 

In 1993, over 41 million pounds of polystyrene was recycled into new plastics products in the U.S. (77). Eor commingled plastics, gasification comes closest to competing with low cost landfilling (57). 

It is not tme either that vinyl is the problem in municipal recycling because it contaminates other resins. Contamination occurs whether or not vinyl is present. Other resins are just as much a contamination problem as vinyl. Except for commingled plastics apphcations, different plastic materials caimot be mixed successfiJly in most recycled products apphcations. This is why it is cmcial to separate efficientiy one plastic from another. Because of the chlorine that is present in it, vinyl lends itself very weU to automated sorting technology. 

Commercial tellurium, 24 408, 414 Commercial vaccines, 25 487 Commercial waste, 25 864 Commingled plastic wastes recycling, 21 453-456 thermal cracking of, 21 454 thermal degradation of, 21 454 Commingled recyclables, 21 368 in waste collection, 25 869-870 Comminution, 16 135... 

Mixed, or commingled, plastics must be dealt with differently to find end uses. Several technologies exist for mixed plastics, such as the ET/1 extrusion process from Advanced Recycling Technology of Belgium and a compression-molding process from Recycloplast of West Germany. At... 

Still, the demand for recycled plastics is low, mainly due to a general uncertainty of the quality of the recycled material. The possibility of offering high quality recycled polymeric materials relays on a reliable and selective collection and sorting, an efficient recycling process and of course an available end-market. The basic technological development, thus, lies in the development of fast, reliable and relatively cheap methods for characterisation of separated and commingled plastic fractions. Recently, it was demonstrated that separation, at home, of a very small amount of products can mean a decreased use of raw oil and less emission of CO2 to the environment [11]. If... 

Pyrolysis recycling of mixed waste plastics into generator and transportation fuels is seen by many as the answer for deriving value from unwashed, commingled plastics as well as managing their desired diversion from landfill. 

Compatibilization and upgrading of commingled plastics for reprocessing, and (3) Recycling of polymer blends [Akovali et al., 1998]. 

Most frequently, recycling companies do not attempt to reproduce the original blends, but to formulate new materials with consistent performance characteristics, capable of satisfying identified applications. The commingled plastics usually follow this path. 

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