How is plastic recycled? | CDE Almería - Centro de Documentación Europea

Glass can be melted, paper can be mulched. But what happens to your plastic waste after the recycling bin is collected? Our expert Barbara Morico from NextChem in Italy explains.

Plastic has long been the bête noire of environmentalists. It is destined, we’re told, to remain in landfill for millennia, or choke the life out of sea creatures. So what exactly happens to the used food containers and fizzy drink bottles that we leave out for collection?

“At the point of collection, there are three different pathways for plastic material – recycling, landfill and incineration,” explains Morico, a senior process engineer at NextChem in Italy. “The reason why not all plastic can be recycled is that the quality of the material decreases after each cycle, gets mixed up with other materials, and after a while cannot be recycled anymore.”

She adds that blended or highly contaminated materials cannot be easily recycled either. These often end up in landfill, or are incinerated.

Waste and recycling: Commission seeks views on revision of the Waste Framework Directive

Different types of plastic are then separated mechanically. The most commonly recycled plastics are polyethylene terephthalate (PET), found in food packaging like drink bottles, high density polyethylene (HDPE) used in items like milk cartons and shampoo bottles, and polypropylene (PP), used to make items like ready-meal trays.

However some plastic materials are harder to recycle than others. Polyester is used to make artificial fibres for clothing, netting and other applications. The base polymer molecule is actually the same as the molecule that makes PET.

Reparar, reutilizar y reciclar

Polyester is a thermoplastic, meaning it can be melted and reformed. “But current mechanical separation techniques however have real difficulties with polyester,” adds Morico. “This is because the material tends to be blended with other materials, and separation is extremely difficult.”

A huge amount of potentially reusable plastic therefore ends up in landfill or is incinerated. Numerous research institutions and companies are working to develop new separation techniques. One potential solution explored by Morico through the EU-funded DEMETO project is chemical separation using microwaves.

More information: Press release – European Commission

Waste and recycling: Commission seeks views on revision of the Waste Framework Directive

Reparar, reutilizar y reciclar

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