Plastics and Priority during the Recycling

Abstract

Increasing demand for post-consumer plastics recycling comes from growing environmental awareness and the need for sustainability as well as from legislative measures. Generally, the recycling of plastics is important in terms of natural resources preservation (oil, natural gas), energy conservation, saving of landfill spaces, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, overall environmental protection, and economical benefits. The different types of plastics recycling result in valuable raw materials (mechanical and chemical recycling) or in a notable quantity of energy when plastic waste is used as a fuel (energy recovery). A priority during recycling is to create high quality pretreatment processes of post-consumer plastics in order to obtain the best possible product and to minimize recycling expenses. This chapter gives a general overview of plastics recycling, especially of pretreatment procedures, with an emphasis on poly(ethylene-terephthalate), polyethylene, and tire recycling processes. It reveals the main problems during these processes and states their analysis and possible solutions.