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Prospects for plastic material recycling by chemical and biological technology (OCTOBER 2020)
Citation:
Glaser, John A. Prospects for plastic material recycling by chemical and biological technology (OCTOBER 2020). Regions 5&7 Electronic Waste Management Call with State Staff, October 2020, NA, N/A, October 06, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation looks to identify and analyze the prospects for the availability and utility of emerging and existing technology to recycle used plastic materials employing chemical and/or biotechnological processing. The competitive economic requirements for successful processes will be explored along with the environmental acceptability of each process.
Description:
Since the early 1950s, plastics production has generated a variety of plastic material forms which have become ubiquitous global contamination. Plastic production has increased, across the intervening time, at a rate faster than that of any other manufactured material. Prohibition of used plastic flows to certain countries has stopped disposal of plastics. The absence of this option for plastics disposal has disrupted international plastic material flows. The social value of plastic is easily seen in its myriad uses ranging from durable to single-use applications. Our overuse of disposable plastic items is a major problem with severe environmental consequences. Increased use of disposables has challenges current resource management efforts. International changes to available recycling pathways have opened a field of alternatives for consideration as productive and environmentally conscious recycling technology. The repurposing of used plastics can be accomplished through use of technologies based on purification, decomposition or conversion approaches to waste plastic utilization. Depolymerization technologies ranging for bench-scale demonstration to full scale implementation are becoming investment targets. Notable examples involve liquefaction, methanolysis, or cross alkane metathesis processes. Plastics-to-fuel strategies are prominent in the catalogue of processes under investigation. Clearly, it is important to provide sustainable management of used plastics while employing these emerging technologies. Closed supply chain constraints offer optimal solutions to the recycling needs of our society. Assessment approaches such as lifecycle evaluation can contribute to a more complete knowledge of used plastics recycling technology development. Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this abstract have not been formally disseminated by the USEPA and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy.