Plastic Recycling and Its Importance
The plastic recycling market is expanding due to changing consumer trends. In 2020, the global plastic recycling market was valued at around USD 2.9 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.1 percent from 2021 to 2028, according to Grandview Research, a market research and consulting company. This growth is driven by increasing awareness of the environmental impact of plastic waste and government policies aimed at promoting the use of recycled plastic.
Plastic recycling is the process of remaking utilized or waste plastic into new products. Plastic recycling aids in environment conservation by using resources efficiently and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
The plastic recycling process involves several steps, commencing with collecting and sorting plastic waste. Plastic waste is collected from various sources, such as households, businesses, and industrial facilities. Once collected, the plastic is sorted by color and resin content. The sorted plastic is then cleaned, shredded into small pieces, and resized.
Identification and separation then follow, where a testing procedure to determine the class and quality of plastics takes place. The metrics investigated in this stage are density and air classification. Lastly, the plastic particles are melted down into pellets. These pellets can be used to make a variety of new products.
Recycling plastics comes with a host of benefits. New products from recycled plastics can include simple items like packaging materials, clothes, traffic cones, and kitchenware to more complex products such as composite materials, park benches, and plastic lumber. Furthermore, manufacturing recycled products has a lower carbon footprint than new ones.
In addition, plastic recycling eases plastic waste in landfills and other areas where it can cause harm to the environment and wildlife. Plastic waste can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills, releasing toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater. In oceans, plastic trash can entangle and kill marine life, potentially harming the food chain.
Recycling plastic can also lead to significant energy savings. Recycling one ton of plastic saves the equivalent energy of 5.774 kWh, the same as two individuals’ energy consumption for one year.
Despite the many benefits of plastic recycling, some challenges must be addressed. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of recycling infrastructure in many countries. According to a study done by Greenpeace, only five percent of plastic waste generated in American households is recycled.
The quality of recycled plastic is another challenge, as recycled plastic can vary depending on the type of plastic and the recycling process used. This can limit the use of recycled plastic in some applications, such as food packaging.
Sorting plastics is an additional difficulty. Plastic belongs to the composite materials category, consisting of a combination of multiple types of raw materials. This complexity in composition makes the recycling process of plastics challenging. The resin identification codes (RIC) categorize plastics into seven official categories, but there are thousands of variations of plastic blends in existence.
Reducing plastic waste is a crucial concern for humanity and the environment. With the advancement of technology, various solutions have emerged that tackle this issue, such as breaking down previously non-recyclable plastics and converting post-consumer plastics into alternatives for fossil fuels through chemical processes.
