Читать книгу Plastics Process Analysis, Instrumentation, and Control - Группа авторов - Страница 46

Recycling has been recognized as the preferred plastic waste management solution. However, little is known about the detailed characteristics of plastic waste and how these may affect its recycling (85).

In a study, hard plastic, plastic film and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) waste collected at three Danish recycling centers were sampled and characterized according to product applications, legislative requirements (quality), expected product lifetime, polymer types and presence of potential impurities such as colored plastics, non-plastic materials and multi-polymer products (85).

The so obtained information was used for the estimation of overall recycling potentials for selected archetype recycling process chains based on material flow analysis. In addition to providing detailed data for the composition of the plastic waste products, the results showed that impurities represented 28% (wet weight) of the plastic waste, and that about 75% of the plastic waste was characterized as low-quality applications, indicating some legislative recovery restrictions. By accounting for the level/type of impurities, the overall recycling potential was found to be 52% for hard plastics, 59% for plastic films and 79% for PVC waste.

The results of the study showed that while varying according to polymer type, the recyclability of high-quality plastic waste was 12% – 35% higher than low-quality applications. While actual results are representative of Danish conditions, the study demonstrated that detailed characteristics of plastic waste are needed to identify potential challenges to recycling, thereby potentially improving the design and the efficiency of recovery of recycling facilities (85).

In Europe’s Nordic region, there is low utilization of plastic waste and only a fraction of plastic materials goes back into production processes through reuse and recycling practices (86). In the main hotspots identified, these processes are in low demand due to price considerations, insufficient traceability and transparency in value chain transactions, and general design deficiencies in the recyclability of products.