Introduction to Recycling

Abstract

Recycling continues to contribute to the sustainable management of plastic solid wastes (PSWs) and it’s among the important approaches currently used for reducing the impacts of PSWs in the plastic industry. It provides opportunities for reducing quantities of wastes disposed, oil usage and carbon dioxide emissions. Further, opportunities in form of job creation, global warming reduction, reduction of virgin material consumption, reduction in landfill contamination etc. It also presents demerits such as being costly, contamination, littering, pollution etc. The chapter outlines the concept of recycling with particular attention to plastics. It discusses the two strategies of recycling: open-loop recycling and closed-loop recycling. These strategies are compared and the difference is that, open-loop recycling provides an opportunity for new product development while closed-loop is confined to the original products. Different recycling processes such as primary recycling, secondary (mechanical) recycling, tertiary recycling and energy recovery are discussed by focussing on the processes, merits and demerits. Recycling is contributing to the sustainable management of wastes and, because of advances in technologies and systems for segregating, collecting and reprocessing of recyclable wastes, it is rapidly expanding. It is creating new opportunities for integration with industries, communities and the governments.