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From page 175... ... 175 8 Plastics Redesign for Recycling As demonstrated in preceding chapters, the recycling and reuse of plastics waste is impeded by a range of factors. Supply of and demand for quality recycled plastics are often at levels too low to justify the expense of collecting and processing the material. Read the entire page →
From page 176... ... 176 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE (R&D) initiatives that have been launched to advance this field. Read the entire page →
From page 177... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 177 DRIVERS AND RATIONALE FOR NEXT-GENERATION PLASTICS AND PLASTIC PRODUCTS Only a small fraction of plastics waste is recycled globally. Approximately 12 percent of spent plastic is reused or recycled, approximately 25 percent is incinerated, and approximately 60 percent ends up in the environment, such as landfills, dumps, public land, or bodies of water (Hundertmark et al. Read the entire page →
From page 178... ... 178 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE • Improving the economics, processing, energy, properties, and performance of infrastructure; and • Meeting policy and regulatory demands. These goals present opportunities for new types of materials and processes that allow solutions that improve infrastructure but are not merely creating long-term storage of plastics within infrastructure. Read the entire page →
From page 179... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 179 maintenance of polymer structural integrity or to possess mechanisms for breakdown and building back up for chemical recyclability. There are opportunities for diversity in plastics compositions, structures, and properties during the recycling process. Read the entire page →
From page 180... ... 180 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Some guiding principles for the design of next-generation plastics and plastic products in infrastructure include the following: • Maximize correlation between plastic durability and conditions and lifetime for use, with mechanisms built in to provide selective routes for mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, mechanical upcycling, chemical upcycling, and/or (bio) degrading the materials. Read the entire page →
From page 181... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 181 The Green Chemistry and Green Engineering programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Read the entire page →
From page 182... ... 182 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE and policy developments in Europe and elsewhere. The European Union has been a global leader in development and implementation of science and policy to promote sustainable material design, use, and recycling. Read the entire page →
From page 183... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 183 diversity of natural products compared to the petrochemical building blocks used in the primary plastic types currently involved in recycling for use in infrastructure. However, introduction of new chemistries may come at the cost of increasing the complexity of plastics sorting and processing by various mechanical or chemical recycling techniques. Read the entire page →
From page 184... ... 184 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE BOX 8-2 Example of Federal Research and Development: Bio-Optimized Technologies to Keep Thermoplastics Out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™) Consortium The BOTTLE consortium (https://www.bottle.org) Read the entire page →
From page 185... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 185 BOTTLE is funded by USDOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. The research and development is conducted by national laboratory and university partners with expertise in process development and integration, chemical catalysis, biocatalysis, materials science, separation, modeling, economic analysis, and sustainability analysis. Read the entire page →
From page 186... ... 186 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE use, and expansion of the breadth of polyolefin chemical structures (beyond HDPE, low-density polyethylene [LDPE] , polypropylene) Read the entire page →
From page 187... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 187 CAVEATS, RISKS, UPSTREAM/DOWNSTREAM REALITY CHECKS, AND POTENTIAL ADVERSE EFFECTS OF NEXT-GENERATION PLASTICS The introduction of any next-generation plastic material, regardless of formulation and enhanced recyclability, will involve obstacles to acceptance and impacts to the plastics production, use, and reuse system. These challenges merit as much preconsideration as possible. Read the entire page →
From page 188... ... 188 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE land and water consumption, as is the case for biofuel production (NRC 2008, 2011) Read the entire page →
From page 189... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 189 • Guiding principles for the design of next-generation plastics and plastic products include correlation between plastic durability, conditions, and lifetime. As next-generation plastics and plastic products are designed, it would be beneficial to create guidance on selective routes for their mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, mechanical upcycling, chemical upcycling, and/or (bio) Read the entire page →
From page 190... ... 190 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE European Commission. Read the entire page →
From page 191... ... PLASTICS REDESIGN FOR RECYCLING 191 SK Chemicals. Read the entire page →

From page 175...

... 175 8 Plastics Redesign for Recycling As demonstrated in preceding chapters, the recycling and reuse of plastics waste is impeded by a range of factors. Supply of and demand for quality recycled plastics are often at levels too low to justify the expense of collecting and processing the material.