Recycling plastics and

Current European Legislation and Standardisation on Recycled Plastics and Rubbers... 

In most cases, before attempts are made to recycle plastic resins, the used parts must first go through a series of sorting processes. The purpose of these sorting processes is to separate the desired recycle plastic from possible contaminants in the incoming stream. These contaminants can take many forms. They include dirt, paper, glue, and metal as well as other recyclable plastics and even the same desired plastic but of a different color. The most postconsumer recycled plastic today is PET. This is the plastic from which all plastic soft drink beverage bottles are made. 

Recycled plastics and chemical migration into food 203... 

Recycling Sumitomo Chemical demonstrates a positive approach to recycling as a means of reducing environmental impact. In 1991 it set up a Committee for Plastics Recycling , which is working both to develop easy-to-recycle plastics, and to mould regenerated plastics. Examples of other initiatives include the recovery of sodium ion and sulphur from wastewater and the use of reverse osmosis for recovering caprolactam. 

Table 16.2. Uses of recyclable plastics and their content in the total amount of produced waste by sector...

A Carson City, Nevada, company is marketing a noise wall that contains recycled rubber tires and recycled plastics. The wall s shell is made of a pultruded thermosetting composite of polyester and glass, and the fill section is made of ground, recycled plastics and rubber tires... 

Wood-plastic and other natural fiber-plastic composite materials are being increasingly used in automotive industries. Woodstock, made with a mix of about 50% wood flour and 50% PP, is still widely used for automotive interiors, but the industry appears to be especially interested in components made form recycled plastics, and the introduction of wood-filled compounds for molding has spurred some of this interest. 

In conclusion, it is likely that more composite materiak, recycled plastics and formulations containing fewer environment-and health damaging additives will be present in collections of the future. Plastic electronics are likely to raise the technological complexity of plastics materiak in collections. 

HDPE or number 2 is the most often recycled plastics and recycled items include botdes for non-food items such as shampoo and detergent, garden tables and benches, recycling bins and buckets. 

WPC does not outperform wood in most environmental attributes. For instance, a recent (Bohn and Smith, 2011) cradle-to-grave LCA was carried out on the environmental merits of WPC based on recycled plastics and those of treated wood, for deck con-stmction (Clanons, 2002). In every category, the treated wood (with copper oxide and dodecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) outperformed WPC material. The energy cost of WPC was >8.5 times that of treated wood. But when compared to plastic building materials, WPC nearly always turns out to be better from an enviromnental standpoint, based on in several LCA studies (Corbiere-NicoUier et al., 2001 Wotzel et al., 1999). 

Mixed Waste Processing. Another approach to recycling plastics and other materials is not to ask consumers to do any special sorting or preparation bufi instead, to recover recyclables from the garbage stream. The advantage of these systems is that, since they do not require any particular cooperation by consumers, they have the potential to recover the largest amount of recyclables. 

Miller, C., DOE Report Recycle Plastic and Metal, Refill Glass, Burn Paper, Waste Age s Recycling Times, March 7, 1995, p. 10. 

Recycling addresses the needs of small industries in remote or emerging markets by enabling the development and progression of this sector. If the recycling process does not move forward, these organisations will have insufficient recycled plastic and consequently lower productivity. 

Plastics waste is becoming an environmental and social problem. Industry can avoid the increasing cost of waste disposal, and potential financial difficulty, by not allowing it to accumulate, which would also benefit the environment. At the same time, in terms of the consumer point-of-view, it is the responsibility of industry to dispose of plastics waste properly. Hence, the plastics industry can incorporate the use of recycled plastics and improve its chances of surviving by ... 

Recycled plastic lumber (RPL) was developed as a substitute for treated wood [51]. RPL, being a product of commingled plastics, can contain as much as 100% post-consumer plastics (or a blend of recycled plastic and recycled wood waste), while structural plastic lumber is... 

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