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Recycling Plastics in the U.S.: Polypropylene Flows and Recycling Processes
Citation:
Smith, Raymond L. AND S. Takkellapati. Recycling Plastics in the U.S.: Polypropylene Flows and Recycling Processes. Presented at American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, November 05 - 10, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
This abstract describes a presentation for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, for the National Meeting to be held in November of 2023. The presentation is on research that supports Sustainable Materials Management in EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is a postconsumer use stream where some plastics are recycled. This effort describes flows of plastics that are collected, sorted, reclaimed, further processed, and converted for downstream uses. An example case study is described for polypropylene (PP, plastic #5). The analysis points to where postconsumer plastic ends up. What fraction is recycled? What products are recycled? And into what streams and products does recycled PP end up? Information about these flowrates and the associated resource use and releases to the environment supports efforts in Sustainable Materials Management, where individual generation, recycling, composting, combustion with energy recovery, and landfilling flows are tracked within the non-hazardous waste management hierarchy.
Description:
Plastic production is currently projected to grow beyond our capabilities to manage. Flows of postconsumer use plastics continue to increase, and so it is important to understand the management pathways for them. A previous study examined PET flows and processes [1]. This effort focuses on polypropylene (PP, Plastic #5), its material flows and recycling processes. The presentation will describe the PP items being collected, sorted, reclaimed, further processed, and converted into new recycled products. The analysis includes a variety of bales produced from sorting processes and the types of further processing that can prepare materials for downstream use. Among the processes studied are dissolution/precipitation and pyrolysis. Resource use and releases to the environment are described, along with the different products that can be made from these processes of recycled plastics.