C H A P T E R

13
Plastic Recycling
Li Shen, Ernst Worrell
Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

13.1 INTRODUCTION waste. Moreover, plastics are mainly made from

petrochemical feedstocks, which have increased
Plastics are synthetic organic polymers, in price over the past decades, are concentrated
mainly made from petrochemical feedstocks. in a relatively small number of locations and
Since the invention of the first plastic or polymer will be in short supply within the next decades.
in the early 1900s (i.e. Bakelite), and the develop- Hence, plastic recycling will reduce reliance on
ment of polyethylene in the 1930s, the number of fossil fuels.
plastics has increased dramatically, and so has Recycling of plastic wastes, especially post-
their use. As society has steadily increased its consumer, has had a slow start. Compared
use of plastics, plastic waste management has to other commonly used materials such as paper,
become a growing concern around the world. glass and metals, recovery and recycling rates are
Today, about 280 Mt of plastics are produced generally low. Even in countries with advanced
annually. The key producers of plastics are China waste management systems and long experience
(23%), Europe (21%), North America (20%) and in recycling, plastic recycling rates are typically
the rest of Asia (excluding China; 21%). much lower than rates of other materials. This
Plastics offer many advantages for specific is also partly caused by the huge variety of plas-
applications. Plastics are easy to shape, do not tics, additives and composites used. This variety
corrode or decompose only slowly and the char- is one of the key advantages of plastics, and one
acteristics can be adapted to the specific needs of the reasons for its versatility. Yet, this variation
by using composites or adding specific layers is a problem for recycling.
or additives. These characteristics are also the In this chapter, we will first discuss trends in
source of some of the problems associated plastic consumption, and types of plastics used.
with plastics. From the association of chlori- This is followed by a description of the current
nated plastics with dioxin formation in waste in- situation with respect to plastics in the waste
cinerators to the plastic soup, the durability and stage and recycling. We will primarily focus on
wide use of plastics contributes to significant post-consumer waste streams, as little data are
waste management problems. Recycling of plas- available on pre-consumer plastic waste. Then,
tics is one of the key strategies to reduce the the typical processes in plastic recycling are
environmental problems associated with plastic discussed, followed by a discussion of the

Handbook of Recycling
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-396459-5.00013-1 179 Copyright Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
180 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

environmental benefits, using one of the key chloride (PVC). PE can be subdivided in high-
recycled plastics (PET) as an example. We end density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density
with some concluding remarks on the future polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density
challenges and opportunities of plastics polyethylene (LLDPE), based on the way the
recycling. polymer chains are distributed in the plastic.
Thermosets can melt and take shape once; i.e. af-
ter solidification they stay solid. In the thermo-
13.2 USE OF PLASTICS setting process, a chemical reaction occurs that
is irreversible. Polyurethane (PUR) is one of
There is a huge variety of plastics, and the ap- the most used thermosets. Recycling of thermo-
plications similarly are extremely wide. Today, sets is harder, and can only be done in a chemi-
plastics are found in virtually all the things we cal process (see below).
do and use throughout all aspects of life. Still, Figure 13.2 depicts the key plastic types used
a few uses dominate current plastics consump- in the EU-27. The global distribution of plastic
tion. In the EU-15 member states, packaging types is comparable to the distribution found
was the dominant user of plastic (38%), fol- in the European Union. National distribution
lowed by building and construction, household of uses and plastic types may vary, depending
wares, automotive, electronics and a variety of on specific circumstances. Some plastic types
applications. Figure 13.1 depicts the distribution are used predominantly in specific applications.
of applications of plastics. For example, the use of PVC in packaging has
There are many types of plastics. Plastics are been reduced in many countries, but PVC,
subdivided in thermoplasts and thermosets. together with PUR and PS, is one of the key plas-
Thermoplasts do not undergo chemical changes tics used in the building and construction sector.
when heated and can be molded again. The In the packaging markets, the polyolefins (i.e.
main thermoplasts are polyethylene (PE), poly- PE, PP), PET and PS dominate. Table 13.1
propylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl

FIGURE 13.1 Key applications of plastics. Distribution is FIGURE 13.2 Key plastic types as used in the European
based on data from the EU-15 member states. Union (EU-27) in 2011. Based on data from Plastics Europe.

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 13.2 USE OF PLASTICS 181
TABLE 13.1 Typical Applications of Common Plastic Types

Number Abbreviation and Name Typical Applications

PET: polyethylene terephthalate Bottles and flasks for soft drinks, mineral water, detergents
and pharmaceutical products; blister packs; packaging for
ready meals

HDPE: high-density polyethylene Thick-walled applications such as bottles and flasks, barrels,
jerry cans, crates and jails; films for refuse bags; packaging for
carpets and instruments

PVC: polyvinyl chloride Blister and press-through packs for medication; films for
perishables

PC: polycarbonate Refillable milk bottles; specific refillable packaging for liquids

LDPE: low-density polyethylene Foil and film, such as shrink wraps, tubular film, sacks and
covering wraps for bread, vegetables, fruit and carrier bags

LLDPE: linear low-density polyethylene Ultra-thin films: elastic wrap foil or stretch films

PP: polypropylene Buckets, crates, boxes, caps for bottles or flasks, transparent
packaging for flowers, plants, confection products; yogurt and
dairy product cups; industrial adhesive tapes

(Continued)

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182 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

TABLE 13.1 Typical Applications of Common Plastic Types (cont’d)

Number Abbreviation and Name Typical Applications

PS: polystyrene Food service disposables; boxes and dishes for meat products
and vegetables; boxes for ice; boxes for video tapes

EPS: expanded polystyrene Buffer packaging for household devices, electronics and
instruments; flasks and pipettes for the medical industry; egg
packaging and fast food packaging

Other Other packaging

The numbers refer to the code used to sort plastics for recycling.

summarizes some of the key uses of the main However, in the last decade, the emerging bio-
plastic types used. based plastics experienced a rapid growth. The
Plastics are an attractive material for many ap- global capacity of the emerging bio-based plas-
plications because plastics are easy to shape and tics has increased from 0.1 Mt in 2003, to
material characteristics can be adapted or even 1.16 Mt by 2011. The global production of bio-
tailored to the specific application. This is often based plastics is likely to grow strongly in the
done by adding additives or forming composites next decade and to reach 2.3 Mt in 2013 and
through adding layers of special materials (with 5.0 Mt in 2016 (Shen et al., 2010a; European Bio-
e.g. special barrier properties for oxygen, carbon plastics, 2013). The key bio-plastics at this
dioxide, ultraviolet light) in the plastic. While moment are bio-based PET (39%), PLA (polylac-
this affects the application of the plastic posi- tic acid) and blends (16%), bio-based PE (17%)
tively (e.g. reduced material use), this can and starch plastics and blends (11%) (European
become a barrier in recycling, effectively limiting Bioplastics, 2013).
or even blocking recycling of the plastic. Typi-
cally, additives and fillers are about 20% of the
plastic weight, and can be even more for some 13.3 PLASTIC RECYCLING
applications. The distribution of key plastics as
depicted in Figure 13.2 may, hence, contain other The 2011 plastic use in the European Union
materials. Figure 13.2 is based on the main plastic is estimated at 47 Mt (based on the consump-
in the product application. tion of plastic convertors and processors), and
Currently, bio-based plastics are still a minute post-consumer wastes are estimated at 25 Mt.
fraction of the total volume of plastics used. These figures demonstrate that besides the

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 13.3 PLASTIC RECYCLING 183
production of industrial wastes, there is also while the remainder was likely used as refuse-
a considerable stock buildup in society. For derived fuel (RDF) or incinerated in MSW incin-
example, many plastics currently used in con- erators with energy recovery (about 9 Mt).
struction (21% of total plastic consumption in While Europe can be considered a leader in
the EU) end up in buildings with long lifetimes. plastics recycling, only about 26% of plastic
These plastics will become available as waste in waste is recycled. This is much lower than that
the future as these buildings are renovated or of other materials (e.g. the recycling rate of pa-
demolished. per and board is nearly 72% in Europe).
This stock buildup also explains why there Large differences in recovery and recycling
are considerable differences between the plastic rates can be observed across countries. For
uses and plastic wastes. Figure 13.3 depicts the example, in 2012, Switzerland, Germany, Austria,
distribution of use categories in consumption Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, the
and plastic wastes. Packaging is by far the domi- Netherlands and Norway had very high recovery
nant factor contributing to plastic waste (76%), rates. These countries had a ban on landfilling,
while it is about 38% of plastic use. Especially, which may have contributed to high recovery
plastic waste from construction, automotive, rates. The recovery rates for other member states
electronics and household wares trail behind varied between lows of 12e15% and about 60%.
consumption figures, because of retention of The recycling rates also varied considerably, but
the products in stocks in society. are all far below the recovery rate. The highest
In 2012, based on figures of PlasticsEurope, rate of recycling was seen in Norway (about
25.2 Mt of post-consumer plastic waste was 37%) and the lowest in Malta at 12%. Some coun-
collected in the European Union. Of this, more tries do not have energy recovery systems and
than 60% (15.6 Mt) was recovered and 40% therefore all recovered wastes were recycled
(9.6 Mt) was disposed of with municipal solid (e.g. Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta), while Ger-
waste (MSW). Of the 15.6 Mt of recovered plas- many, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and
tic waste, about 6.6 Mt was actually recycled, Norway have recycling rates of 30e37%
compared to very high recovery rates (92e98%),
meaning that a large fraction of the recovered
plastic is actually incinerated.
100% Typically, plastics are recycled mechanically
(see below). However, some plastic cannot be
80%
mechanically recycled because of the character-
istics of the material (e.g. thermosets) or because
Others of the low purity (caused by mixing with other
60% Agriculture plastics, being composites, being laminated
Electronics/household with multiple layers or presence of additives
40% Automove and fillers). Feedstock recycling is then an op-
Construcon tion. Here, the low-purity mixed plastics are
Packaging converted into syngas or liquid fuel via a pyrol-
20%
ysis process and to be used as a reducing agent
(as carbon monoxide) in blast furnaces in the
0% iron and steel industry to replace coke or
Consumpon Waste mineral oil. For plastic-containing electrical
FIGURE 13.3 Distribution of plastic applications in and electronic waste, feedstock recycling also
consumption and waste in the European Union. recovers precious metals. In 2008, only 0.07 Mt

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184 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

of plastic was processed by feedstock recycling post-consumer waste, there are usually still
in the European Union. In Europe, currently non-plastic impurities in the material, such as
about 0.22 Mt of capacity has been installed for labels and little pieces of metal. These are first
this type of feedstock recycling to provide an removed. Separation into various types of plas-
alternative reducing agent for the iron and steel tics is required to improve material quality.
industry. The separation of mixed plastics is challenging,
Next to mechanical recycling and feedstock and various techniques are applied in varying
recycling, some plastics such as PET can be combinations. The process and the order in
chemically recycled. In this technology, used which they are used are defined by the
plastics are depolymerized into monomers, composition of the mixed waste stream. Eddy
which can be repolymerized to produce virgin current separator, sinkefloat separation, drum
polymer. Currently, chemical recycling is hardly separators/screens, induction sorting, X-ray
used on a commercial scale. technology and near infrared (NIR) sensors are
the most commonly used separation techniques.
Most companies use a combination of different
13.4 MECHANICAL RECYCLING techniques to obtain sufficiently pure streams.
The design of a sorting installation may be
Today, mechanical recycling is the main tech- tailored to the incoming stream of plastic waste,
nology used to recycle plastics. Mechanical to optimize sorting efficiency. The achievable
recycling of plastics in the European Union purity level is a trade-off between (energy) costs
slowly increased from just below 5 Mt in 2006 and market requirements. This, by definition,
to about 6.6 Mt in 2012 (comparable to a recy- will result always in impurities. The maximum
cling rate of 26%). Mechanical recycling typi- achievable purity by separating mixed plastics
cally includes four steps. The collected waste is 94e95%. High-quality recycled mate-
material is first sorted (step 1). The sorted mate- rial should have at least a purity of 98% to be
rial is shredded (step 2), and then washed and used as input into manufacturing processes.
dried (step 3). The material can then be melted This means that in subsequent steps further
and reprocessed to make pellets (that can be refining is necessary if high-quality recycled
used by a manufacturer or convertor) or prod- material is to be produced. The key sorting tech-
ucts directly (step 4). Below we discuss the key nologies are as follows:
steps in more detail.
Sometimes, relatively pure streams of waste • Induction sorting. Material is sent over a
plastic are recovered (e.g. through dedicated conveyor belt with a series of inductive
collection systems for plastic bottles through a sensors underneath. These sensors locate
refund system). These streams can deliver different types of metal, which are then
high-quality recycled material with desired separated by fast air jets.
properties, requiring only minimal sorting to • Eddy current separator. An “eddy current” is
remove any impurities (e.g. bottle caps, labels). an electric current that occurs when changing
Sorting. The first step in a recycling process is the magnetic field within a conductor, and is
the collection of the waste and transporting it to used to separate non-ferrous metals.
a sorting plant to sort the plastic mix. The • Drum separator/screen. These separate
collected mix of plastics usually consists of materials on the basis of the particle size.
various types of plastics, especially for post- Waste is fed into a large rotating drum, which
consumer waste. Pre-consumer (production) is perforated with holes of different sizes.
waste can be (relatively) pure. In the case of Materials smaller than the diameter of the

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 13.4 MECHANICAL RECYCLING 185
holes drop through, and larger particles they contain less than 0.1 wt% moisture and
remain in the drum. are ready for reprocessing.
• Sinkefloat separation. The plastic waste is Reprocessing. There are different techniques
separated based on the specific weight of the for reprocessing, with the most common ones
material relative to the fluid. In water, some being as follows:
plastics (e.g. PET, PVC and PS) will sink, and
others will float (e.g. PE, PP and EPS). After • Agglomeration. This process is mainly applied
the sinkefloat separation, the fractions still for recycling plastic films. Film is cut into
need to go through another process to small pieces, heated by friction (to allow for
separate the different polymers. agglomeration) and subsequently cooled
• X-ray technology. X-rays can be used to down by injecting water. This is usually
distinguish between different types of carried out in a single machine. The product
material based on density. is referred to as crumbs or agglomerates and
• Near infrared sensor. When plastics are is not ideal for further processing. The
illuminated, they mostly reflect light in the agglomerates can be mixed with plastic flakes
near infrared (NIR) wavelength spectrum. for extrusion. The agglomeration process is
The NIR sensor can distinguish between very energy intensive (approximately
different materials based on the way they 300e700 kWh/t of plastic). Agglomeration
reflect light. The fractions are then blown can be avoided for most injection and
with an air jet to separate them from the extrusion grade plastics.
mixed stream. This is currently the preferred • Extrusion. The most commonly applied
method by the industry to accurately identify technique for reprocessing recycled plastic is
the many different polymers. extrusion. It is commonly used to
manufacture pellets from virgin plastics, and
Shredding. The next step is to reduce the size also used to produce pellets from recycled
of the scrap, to enable processing larger pieces material. The material is blended and then
of plastic waste and to improve the density injected in the extruder from a hopper. It
of the material for more efficient storage comes into contact with a rotating screw that
and transport. A shredder consists of rotating forces the plastic flakes forward into a heated
blades driven by an electric motor, some sort barrel at the desired melt temperature of the
of grid for size grading and a collection bin. Ma- molten plastic (ranging from 200 to 275  C).
terials are added to the shredder by a hopper. The pressure allows the plastic (beads) to mix
The product of shredding is a pile of plastic and melt gradually as they are pushed
flakes. through the barrel. The melt is degassed to
Washing. After the plastics are shredded into remove oils, waxes and lubricants. Finally the
small flakes they are washed. Although most molten plastic is pushed through a sieve to
post-consumer waste is washed, this is not remove impurities, cooled and pelletized.
true for all input material used for recycling. After the agglomeration or extrusion phase,
Some regrind or even agglomerate is processed the agglomerates or pellets are ready for the
instantly. Cold or hot water, up to 60  C, may be final processing step, the choice of which is
applied. Cold water use may result in increased determined by the final product:
use of chemicals (e.g. sodium hydroxide) and
mechanical energy. The waste water from the • Injection molding. The first stage of this
washing is often treated internally for internal manufacturing process is identical to that of
reuse. The washed plastic flakes are dried until extrusion; i.e. the pellets are molten again,

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186 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

but then the polymer is pressed with high economic impact of recycling may hence vary
pressure into a split mold. The mixture is considerably from case to case, needing careful
pressed into the mold until it is full and, after analysis.
cooling to allow the plastic to solidify, the
mold is opened and the product can be
removed. 13.5 IMPACT OF RECYCLING
• Blow molding. The spiral screw of the extruder
forces the plasticized polymer through a die. The environmental impact of recycling de-
A short hollow tube and compressed air is pends on many factors, ranging from the energy
used to expand the tube until it fills the mold used for collecting the plastic waste to the type
and obtains its required shape. This of material and application being replaced by
manufacturing technique is used for the recycled plastic (which is partly determined
manufacturing bottles and other containers. by the quality of the recycled material). The
• Film blowing. Film blowing is a process used markets for recycled plastic are still limited,
to manufacture items such as plastic bags. It but growing. Applications of the recycled mate-
is a technically more complex process and rial vary and will affect the overall environ-
requires high-quality raw materials. The mental benefits and economics of recycling.
process involves blowing compressed air into In this section, we discuss the results of a life-
a thin tube of polymer to expand it to the cycle analysis (LCA) of PET bottle recycling
point where it becomes a thin film tube. (Shen et al., 2010b). Globally, almost three times
• Fiber extrusion. The melt extruded polymer as much PET is used for textile production as for
(polyester) is sent to the spinneret where the packaging. In Europe, the amount of collected
spinning of filament takes place. The post-consumer PET bottle waste increased
filaments then pass through a denier setter from 0.2 Mt in 1998 to 1.6 Mt in 2011. About
before they enter the finishing steps where 52% of all used PET bottles in Europe were
the spun filaments are drawn, dried, cut into collected for recycling in 2012. It is expected
staple fiber and finally baled for sale. that PET bottle waste collection in Europe will
continue to increase.
Today, in practice, high-quality recycled ma- Figure 13.4 shows the flowsheet of the pro-
terial can be made from containers made from duction of recycled PET flakes. After the baled
HDPE, PP and PET (especially bottles). Special- bottles are opened, loose bottles are sorted by
ized streams can also be recycled to provide color and material type. Transparent (unco-
high-quality recycled material. For example, in lored) bottles have a higher economic value
several countries, including The Netherlands, than blue and green ones. The unwanted color
PVC window frames are collected separately fractions and unwanted materials (e.g. paper
and recycled into material for new window and metal) are either sold as by-products or
frames. However, other plastic products, espe- disposed of in local MSW management facil-
cially films and foils, represent a large challenge ities. MSW can be incinerated with or without
for the recycling process. Films are hard to sort, energy recovery, or landfilled, depending on
and the large use of plasticizers and other addi- the available local infrastructure. Next, the bot-
tives makes it impossible to guarantee a high tles are sorted. The plant in Europe uses auto-
purity of the recycled material. Hence, this ma- mated sorting (through color recognition
terial may currently be used to replace other ma- technology), while most Asian producers use
terials than plastics (e.g. in construction) or may manual sorting. Some producers include a step
be incinerated as RDF. The environmental and using hot water washing to remove labels before

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 13.5 IMPACT OF RECYCLING 187
Baled PET bottles:
1.33–1.34 kg

Bale opening

Pre-washing/
By-products, e.g. PVC/LDPE;
Process efficiency η ≈ 75% delabelling
& solid waste.

Sorting
By-products, e.g. green/
(machine/labour)
blue bottles

Chopping
Chemicals, water

Washing

Effluent
treatment
Float separation By-products, e.g. PE, PVC;
& solid waste
Solid waste &
waste water
Rinsing

Drying

Total by-products 0.09–0.14 kg

Recycled PET Solid waste to MSWI 0.25–0.19 kg

flakes: 1 kg or landfilling (loss)

FIGURE 13.4 Schematic presentation of PET bottle recycling (including mass balance). Source: Shen et al. (2010b).

the sorting process. The plastics labels are either on density differences. PE obtained from this
sold as by-products (mainly consisting of LDPE step is sold as a by-product. The PET flakes
and/or PVC) or sent to local MSW manage- are then washed in a cleaning solution, rinsed
ment. The bottles are then chopped into flakes, and dried. In some production lines, a second
followed by a float separation step to separate chopping step (also called “fine crushing”) is
PET from other plastics (e.g. HDPE caps) based required to ensure that the PET flakes meet the

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188 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

quality requirements. Finally, the dried PET filtration step before it is repolymerized into
flakes are ready to be transported to a pellet PET. The recycled polymer is then spun into fi-
plant or a fiber plant. ber. The entire process creates about 5% process
Mechanical recycling is the physical conver- solid waste. In methanolysis, PET is depoly-
sion of flakes into fiber or other products (e.g. merized with methanol to DMT (dimethyl tere-
bottles or sheets) by melt extrusion. Currently, phthalate) and EG in the presence of catalysts
there are two ways to produce recycled fiber under 2e4 MPa pressure and 180e280  C. The
from mechanical recycling. In flake-to-fiber reaction mix is cooled and DMT is recovered
recycling (1), flakes are off-loaded and they are from the mix via precipitation, centrifugation
dried in a column dryer before they are melt and crystallization. The recycled polymer is
extruded. The extruded polymer is filtered then converted into fiber via spinning and
before it passes through the spinneret where finishing processes. The methanolysis route is
filament spinning takes place. After the fila- used commercially. The depolymerization of
ments pass a denier setter, they enter the finish- the DMT is technically identical with the poly-
ing process where the spun filaments are drawn, merization process leading to virgin PET. The
dried, cut into staple fiber and baled. The entire recycled amorphous PET polymer is sent to
process has 1% process solid waste. In many the fiber production plant or upgraded to bottle
other mechanical recycling plants (2), flakes grade resin for bottle production.
are first extruded into pellets and then con- The LCA of the different processes has
verted into fiber and other products. PET flakes shown that recycled polyester fibers produced
are dried prior to the melt extrusion step. The from mechanical recycling have lower environ-
extruded polymer is further purified through a mental impact than virgin polyester. The results
filtration step. After cooling, the polymer is (Shen et al., 2010b) show that recycled polyester
pelletized and dried. The PET pellets are then fibers offer important environmental benefits
delivered to the fiber spinning plant where over virgin polyester. Depending on the alloca-
they are melt-spun into filament fiber. A small tion of the benefits of open loop recycling, en-
amount of ethylene glycol (EG) may be added ergy savings of 40e85% and reductions in
to meet the final quality requirements. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 25e75%
In chemical recycling, PET polymer is can be achieved.
broken down into monomers or oligomers via However, PET fiber used in textiles is a prod-
various depolymerization technologies. Chem- uct that cannot be further recycled via mechan-
ical recycling has a higher cost than mechanical ical recycling. Chemical recycling is technically
recycling. It usually requires a large scale in or- possible, but the economic feasibility of large-
der to become economically feasible. The scale operation is still to be proven. Recycled fi-
important advantage of chemical recycling is ber produced from chemical recycling offers
that the quality of virgin polyester can be lower impacts compared to virgin polyester.
achieved. Current commercially available While mechanical recycling has a better envi-
chemical recycling technologies include glycol- ronmental profile than chemical recycling,
ysis, methanolysis and alkaline hydrolysis. The chemically recycled fibers can be applied in a
glycolysis of PET yields the oligomer bis- wider range of applications than mechanically
hydroxyl ethylene terephthalate. The process recycled fibers. Another important way of recy-
is usually conducted in a wide range of temper- cling PET bottles is bottle-to-bottle recycling.
atures, 180e250  C, with excess EG and in the In this case, a close-loop recycling system is
presence of catalysts. After the glycolysis pro- formed. In theory, PET can be recycled multiple
cess, the oligomer passes through a fine times before it is finally converted into fiber.

II. RECYCLING e APPLICATION & TECHNOLOGY

 REFERENCES 189
The environmental impact of such “cascading” recycling is still limited. The use of different
recycling systems has been studied by Shen plastics for different parts of packaging (e.g.
et al. (2011). The results show that based on caps, labels, containers) and the use of a variety
the current global demand of PET bottles and fi- of additives and fillers are currently barriers for
ber, the recycling system, which includes both high recycling rates. Improving design practices
bottle-to-fiber recycling and bottle-to-bottle may reduce this variety and enable better
recycling, can offer 20% of impact reduction in recycling.
both primary energy demand and GHG emis- New technology will be needed to produce
sions. Multiple recycling trips can further high-purity plastic from recovered material, to
reduce the environmental impact by maximally improve separation efficiency and effectiveness
six percentage points, due to the lower share of (e.g. separating the growing number of bio-
bottle demand (35%) compared to that of the fi- based plastics), and to handle mixed plastic
ber demand (65%). wastes to still produce a high-quality recycled
product. Chemical recycling may be part of
this, and will need further development to
13.6 CONCLUSIONS AND decrease costs and energy use.
OUTLOOK Finally, currently a large part of the recov-
ered plastic is “down cycled”, or used as fuel
Today, plastic recycling is still limited to generate energy in industrial processes or in-
compared to most other bulk materials. Recy- cinerators. Better monitoring is needed to track
cling rates for plastics are increasing in many actual recycling rates and the fate of the recov-
countries around the world, while an interna- ered material, and to allow optimization and
tional market for recycled plastics is developing. “quality cascading” of recycled plastic to
To further increase the recycling rate, the indus- generate the highest economic and environ-
try faces a number of challenges. The key chal- mental gains. Today’s information in most
lenge is the quality of the recovered and countries does not enable such analysis and
recycled material. The use of fillers, additives optimization. Such a system, and the growing
and composites on one hand and contamination international market, will need an interna-
with other materials in the recovery process on tional, widely accepted and used quality certi-
the other hand are key issues to come to a fication system, integrated into a transparent
cleaner recycled plastic product. This can be monitoring system.
achieved by good integration of collection, re-
covery and separation technology. The solution
will consist of an effective combination of these References
three steps, and may vary for different product European Bioplastics, 2013. Bioplastics: Facts and Figures.
streams and waste management systems. This European Bioplastics, Berlin, Germany.
Shen, L., Worrell, E., Patel, M.K., 2010a. Present and future
is observed in relatively high recycling rates of
development in plastics from biomass. Biofuels, Bio-
PET and HDPE, while the recycling rates of products & Biorefining 4, 25e40.
films are still very low (typically not exceeding Shen, L., Worrell, E., Patel, M.K., 2010b. Open-loop recy-
15%). Dedicated collection and recovery sys- cling: a LCA case study of PET bottle-to-fibre recy-
tems will help increase raw material quality. cling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 55,
34e52.
Furthermore, increasing the recycling rate will
Shen, L., Nieuwlaar, E., Worrell, E., Patel, M.K., 2011. Life
also need to include the design stage of prod- cycle energy and GHG emissions of PET recycling:
ucts. While common in certain areas, in the change-oriented effects. International Journal of Life
key uses of plastics (e.g. packaging), design for Cycle Analysis 16, 522e536.

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190 13. PLASTIC RECYCLING

Further Reading Patel, M.K., von Thienen, N., Jochem, E., Worrell, E., 2000.
Recycling of plastics in Germany. Resources, Conserva-
Gutowski, T., Dahmus, J., Albino, D., Branham, M., 2007. tion and Recycling 29, 65e90.
Bayesian Material Separation Model with Applications PlasticsEurope, 2012. Plastics e the Facts 2012. An Analysis
to Recycling. MIT, Cambridge, MA. of European Plastics Production, Demand and Waste
Joosten, L.A.J., Hekkert, M.P., Worrell, E., 2000. Assessment Data for 2011. PlasticsEurope, Brussels, Belgium.
of the plastic flows in The Netherlands using streams. Welle, F., 2011. Twenty years of PET bottle to bottle recyclingd
Resources, Conservation and Recycling 30, 135e161. an overview. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 55,
Kuczenski, B., Geyer, R., 2010. Material flow analysis of poly- 865e875.
ethylene terephthalate in the US, 1996e2007. Resources, Welle, F., 2013. Is PET bottle-to-bottle recycling safe? Eval-
Conservation and Recycling 54, 1161e1169. uation of post-consumer recycling processes according
Patel, M.K., Jochem, E., Radgen, P., Worrell, E., 1998. Plastic to the EFSA guidelines. Resources, Conservation and
streams in Germany e an analysis of production, con- Recycling 73, 41e45.
sumption and waste generation. Resources, Conserva-
tion and Recycling 24, 191e215.

II. RECYCLING e APPLICATION & TECHNOLOGY