Cleaning Up the Waste Stream - Recycling Plastics

摘要

In 1989, nearly 46 billion pounds of plastics were consumed in the United States. This total does not include textile applications. Of this enormous quantity, only about 1 percent of all manufactured plastics have been recycled. Recycling plastics is difficult because the waste stream contains a mix of plastics with different properties. Separating different plastics or finding uses for mixed plastics are major recycling challenges. The task is further complicated by increased use of multilayer packaging, in which layers of different plastics are fused into one container.