Recycled plastic - Geoff Walker and Harald Wilms of Zeppelin Systems look at improving the homogeneity of recycle plastic products

摘要

With an annual increase of plastic consumption in the magnitude of 5%, the amount of plastic waste generated increases respectively. Due to the high cost of raw materials and energy, more and more plastic is being reused through recycling. Whilst recycling from post-consumer waste is still limited, recycling rates for PET bottles and PVC window frames have increased over the past decade. In Europe 40% of plastic waste from PET bottles is already being recycled although the pattern of recycling in Continental Europe differs significantly from the UK for two reasons. First of all, burning plastics in power stations for energy recovery is not as widely done in the UK and secondly, the UK government definition of recycling excludes energy recovery. Europe as a whole however recycles combined plastics at, approximately 20%. Another 30% is used for energy recovery and the remaining 50% is deposited in landfills, as reported by Plastics Europe in their 2008 Annual Report The Compelling Facts About Plastics [1].