Introduction Of Mechanical And Chemical Recycling

With sharply rising awareness and knowledge of plastics and their effects on the environment, it’s been a global issue to prioritize the finding of the best resolution for the problems caused by plastics. However, as much as plastics provide convenience and efficiency to mankind, it’s been quite challenging and burdensome to come up with the right equation to solve this global issue. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean we are not progressing at all. Countless countries and corporates are sparing no expense to constantly come up with new technology and improve the existing ones to make sure there would be a brighter future for the environment, which is the ultimate source of life for the mankind and everything that make up our eco-system. Today, we are going to look into two types of technology that have been responsible for tackling this issue.  

Mechanical Recycling and Chemical Recycling

Mechanical recycling has been the most common form of recycling until chemical recycling was introduced. It involves physical processing of waste plastics, such as washing, shredding, melting, and pelletizing, to reproduce plastic resins which then can be used to make new plastic products. With improvements in the technology of mechanical recycling, the resins produced under certain technology and procedures are now eligible and safe for the production of food and beverage containers.

Chemical recycling on the other hand is, just as the name suggests, a chemical process of recycling plastics. There are a few ways this could be done, but, in large, this involves breaking down plastics into their basic molecular forms with heat and other chemical ingredients and putting them back together to produce new plastic forms. The industry has been highly praising this method of recycling, because it’s been anticipated that this form of recycling will allow us to recycle plastics that were deemed as unrecyclable. Furthermore, research suggests that plastics produced with chemical recycling will be equivalent to virgin plastics in terms of quality.

As mentioned above, until chemical recycling reached the level it is now, mechanical recycling has been predominantly taking all the burden of growing accumulation of plastic wastes. Hence, the industry was able to build upon the practices and consistently improve the way it could be done. Increased quality of recycled plastics meant more waste could be turned into new products and applied across wide range of industries. Unfortunately, there were still some drawbacks to mechanical recycling, one of which was that it can only recycle up to a certain time. With prime technology and procedure, plastics can usually be recycled up to 6~7 times with mechanical recycling. The quality of the recycled plastics gradually diminishes, making it applicable for limited options. This is where chemical recycling could come in handy, because, theoretically, it can recycle any plastics forever without deteriorating the quality. And yet, studies and research are still being carried out and commissioned to find the best combination, because even chemical recycling isn’t without flaws.

Although there are still so much more to be done in both the methods to perfectly and completely close the loop, the efforts and results they have been bringing to the industry and the world are making changes and alleviating the impact of plastics to the health of our globe. Wastes are being treated with value and being turned into more various forms of products. Carbon footprint is gradually decreasing due to such efforts. The results technology has been contributing to the world is encouraging more countries, corporates, and individuals to move in the same direction. We have only briefly looked into what mechanical and chemical recycling could bring to the table, but we will look into them further with more details and interesting facts soon here with Waymaker.