This book shows the true and often-underestimated market potential of plastics recycling, with analysis from economic, ecological, and technical perspectives. It is aimed at both technical and non-technical readers, including decision makers in material suppliers, plastic product manufacturers, governmental agencies, educators, and anyone with a general interest in plastics recycling. An overview of waste handling systems with a focus on the U.S. market is provided. Different methods of waste handling are compared from both economic and ecological perspectives. Since plastic waste recycling is essential from an ecological point of view, common strategies and new approaches to both increase the recycling rate and improve recycling economically and technically are presented. This includes processing and material properties of recycled plastics. Finally, a worldwide outlook of plastic recycling is provided with analysis of additional worldwide markets, encompassing highly developed, fast-developing, and less developed countries. This revised and expanded second edition also contains a new section on fiber-reinforced plastics and considerations for recycling them as well as numerous updates on the data and the context analyzed throughout the book. The spreadsheets used in the economic analyses are also offered as a bonus for the reader to download from plus.hanser-fachbuch.de/en. True to the authors’ mission, this book is printed on recycled paper.

The use of plastic materials has seen a massive increase in recent years, and generation of plastic wastes has grown proportionately. Recycling of these wastes to reduce landfill disposal is problematic due to the wide variation in properties and chemical composition among the different types of plastics. Feedstock recycling is one of the alternatives available for consideration, and Feedstock Recycling of Plastic Wastes looks at the conversion of plastic wastes into valuable chemicals useful as fuels or raw materials. Looking at both scientific and technical aspects of the recycling developments, this book describes the alternatives available. Areas include chemical depolymerization, thermal processes, oxidation and hydrogenation. Besides conventional treatments, new technological approaches for the degradation of plastics, such as conversion under supercritical conditions and coprocessing with coal are discussed. This book is essential reading for those involved in plastic recycling, whether from an academic or industrial perspective. Consultants and government agencies will also find it immensely useful.

Having a solid understanding of materials recycling is of high importance, especially due to the growing use of composites in many industries and increasingly strict legislation and concerns about the disposal of composites in landfills or by incineration. Recycling of Plastics, Metals, and Their Composites provides a comprehensive review of the recycling of waste polymers and metal composites. It provides the latest advances and covers the fundamentals of recycled polymers and metal composites, such as preparation, morphology, and physical, mechanical, thermal, and flame-retardancy properties. FEATURES Offers a state-of-the-art review of the recycling of polymer composites and metal composites for sustainability Describes a life-cycle analysis to help readers understand the true potential value and market for these recycled materials Details potential applications of recycled polymer and metal composites Includes the performance of natural fiber–reinforced recycled thermoplastic polymer composites under aging conditions and the recycling of multi-material plastics Covers recycling technologies, opportunities, and challenges for polymer-matrix composites This book targets technical professionals in the metal and polymer industries as well as researchers, scientists, and advanced students. It is also of interest to decision makers at material suppliers, recycled metal and polymer product manufacturers, and governmental agencies working with recycled metal and polymer composites.

Plastics have become one of the most prolific materials on the planet: in 2015 we produced about 380 million tonnes of plastics globally, up from 2 million tonnes in the 1950s. Yet today only 15% of this plastic waste is collected and recycled into secondary plastics globally each year. This ...

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the recent developments in the recycling of plastic waste material. It presents state-of-the-art procedures for recycling of plastics from different sources and various characterization methods adopted in analyzing their properties. In addition, it looks into properties, processing, and applications of recycled plastic products as one of the drivers for sustainable recycling plastics especially in developing countries. This book proves a useful reference source for both engineers and researchers working in composite materials science as well as the students attending materials science, physics, chemistry, and engineering courses.

As in the successful first edition, this book provides straightforward information on plastic materials and technology, including the options for recycling plastics, with special focus on mechanical recycling. This new edition reflects the great strides that have been made to increase recycling rates worldwide in recent years. It considers the expansion of infrastructure in the UK to support plastic recycling and major achievements that have been made in gaining widespread public support and participation for recycling schemes; specifically the need to manage waste on an individual household level. Current issues surrounding council recycling of plastic bottles, and the practice of providing free plastic carrier bags by supermarkets, are also considered. Biopolymers are expected to have a major impact on plastic markets in the future and therefore some of the issues of biodegradability versus recycling are expanded in this second edition, as is the wider context of life cycle analysis and legislation.

Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel. This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. - Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement - Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation - Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches

Winner of the International Solid Waste Association's 2014 Publication Award, Handbook of Recycling is an authoritative review of the current state-of-the-art of recycling, reuse and reclamation processes commonly implemented today and how they interact with one another. The book addresses several material flows, including iron, steel, aluminum and other metals, pulp and paper, plastics, glass, construction materials, industrial by-products, and more. It also details various recycling technologies as well as recovery and collection techniques. To completely round out the picture of recycling, the book considers policy and economic implications, including the impact of recycling on energy use, sustainable development, and the environment. With contemporary recycling literature scattered across disparate, unconnected articles, this book is a crucial aid to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, from materials and environmental science to public policy studies. - Portrays recent and emerging technologies in metal recycling, by-product utilization and management of post-consumer waste - Uses life cycle analysis to show how to reclaim valuable resources from mineral and metallurgical wastes - Uses examples from current professional and industrial practice, with policy and economic implications

“If you’ve ever been perplexed by the byzantine rules of recycling, you’re not alone…you’ll want to read Can I Recycle This?... An extensive look at what you can and cannot chuck into your blue bin.” —The Washington Post The first illustrated guidebook that answers the age-old question: Can I Recycle This? Since the dawn of the recycling system, men and women the world over have stood by their bins, holding an everyday object, wondering, "can I recycle this?" This simple question reaches into our concern for the environment, the care we take to keep our homes and our communities clean, and how we interact with our local government. Recycling rules seem to differ in every municipality, with exceptions and caveats at every turn, leaving the average American scratching her head at the simple act of throwing something away. Taking readers on a quick but informative tour of how recycling actually works (setting aside the propaganda we were all taught as kids), Can I Recycle This gives straightforward answers to whether dozens of common household objects can or cannot be recycled, as well as the information you need to make that decision for anything else you encounter. Jennie Romer has been working for years to help cities and states across America better deal with the waste we produce, helping draft meaningful legislation to help communities better process their waste and produce less of it in the first place. She has distilled her years of experience into this non-judgmental, easy-to-use guide that will change the way you think about what you throw away and how you do it.

Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete looks at the processing of plastic waste, including techniques for separation, the production of plastic aggregates, the production of concrete with recycled plastic as an aggregate or binder, the fresh properties of concrete with plastic aggregates, the shrinkage of concrete with plastic aggregates, the mechanical properties of concrete with plastic aggregates, toughness of concrete with plastic aggregates, modulus of elasticity of concrete with plastic aggregates, durability of concrete with plastic aggregates, concrete plastic waste powder with enhanced neutron radiation shielding, and more, thus making it a valuable reference for academics and industrial researchers. - Describes the main types of recycled plastics that can be applied in concrete manufacturing - Presents, for the first time, state-of-the art knowledge on the properties of conventional concrete with recycled plastics - Discusses the technological challenges for concrete manufactures for mass production of recycled concrete from plastic waste