EMERGING OUTLETS

摘要

In the years since China's announcement in 2017 that it would be closing the door to imports of low-value recycled plastics,electronics recycling companies have been scrambling to figure out how to handle the polymer segment of the stream.Sending to Southeast Asia has become difficult-many countries in that region have implemented their own import bans.And domestic buyers have been few and far between.Of late,however,some encouraging North American projects have come on-line,with recycling companies in both the e-scrap and plastics sectors investing and fine-tuning systems built specifically to sort e-plastics.By separating by resin,more downstream options open up,and this in turns allows material to keep moving through the system.This article lays out the details on three recent efforts by processing companies to handle e-plastic materials.The endeavors underscore a sortation trend that could very likely be expanding in the years ahead,potentially reducing a major e-scrap cost pressure.