| Projects infobox | |
|---|---|
| image | |
| designers | |
| date | |
| vitamins | |
| materials | |
| transformations | Cutting, Melting |
| lifecycles | |
| tools | Wrenches, Soldering irons, Plastic shredders |
| parts | Frames, Bolts, Nuts, Heaters, Controllers |
| techniques | |
| files | |
| suppliers | |
| git | |
Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful products. Its major goals are reducing dependence on landfill, conversing resources and protecting the environment from plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The recycling of plastic faces numerous technical and economic hurdles, causing it to lag behind the recycling rates of materials like aluminium, glass and paper. In particular, there are many different types of plastic and these need to be segregate from one another prior to recycling as they give a poor quality product if mixed. The most common form of recycling, in which plastic re-melted and reformed into new items, usually results in polymer degradation at a chemical level, so that quality cannot be maintained. More advanced technologies which may mitigate this suffer from high capital costs and are more energy-hungry.