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From page 33... ... 33 The reuse of plastics waste in infrastructure, or any other application, is dependent on the availability of plastics waste in sufficient quantity and quality, at the time and place of need, for remanufacturing and reuse enterprises. That is to say, the reuse of plastics waste is dependent on the plastics waste management system and all its components. Read the entire page →
From page 34... ... 34 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE PLASTICS WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES Global plastics waste generation in 2019 was estimated to be 353 million metric tons (MMT) Read the entire page →
From page 35... ... 35 T A B L E 3 -1 P la st ic s W as te D is po sa l i n th e U ni te d St at es Pl as ti cs W as te M at er ia l, by R es in Pl as ti cs W as te M an ag em en t Pa th w ay s Pl as ti cs W as te b y Pr od uc t T yp e T ot al P la st ic s W as te M an ag ed L an dfi lle d C om bu st ed R ec yc le d D ur ab le N on du ra bl e C on ta in er s an d Pa ck ag in g kt % k t % kt % kt % % % % PE T 5, 98 6 14 4 ,5 54 76 53 3 9 89 9 15 8 4 89 H D PE 7, 91 0 18 6 ,4 48 82 69 3 9 76 8 10 14 3 83 PP 8, 18 9 19 7 ,2 02 88 71 6 9 27 1 3 41 6 53 L D PE /L L D PE 15 ,1 39 34 1 3, 29 0 88 1, 52 4 10 32 5 2 10 3 88 PV C 69 9 2 6 14 88 66 9 18 3 25 13 62 PS /E PS 3, 09 4 7 2 ,8 15 91 26 3 9 16 1 33 43 24 O th er 3, 11 5 7 2 ,7 96 90 27 8 9 41 1 88 7 5 T ot al 44 ,1 31 10 0 3 7, 72 0 86 4, 07 3 9 2, 33 9 5 24 7 70 N O T E S: B ec au se o f da ta r ou nd in g, s om e to ta l v al ue s m ay s ho w a s m al l d is cr ep an cy t o th e su m o f pr es en te d da ta . Read the entire page →
From page 36... ... 36 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE reprocessing) , tertiary recycling (i.e., chemically altering material to reuse it) Read the entire page →
From page 37... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 37 FIGURE 3-2 Historic global plastics waste disposal. SOURCE: Geyer 2020. Read the entire page →
From page 38... ... 38 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE in 2019, 82 percent of which was mismanaged waste. That value represents more than 5 percent of global plastics waste generated. Read the entire page →
From page 39... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 39 Post-Consumer Recyclables Residential post-consumer waste collection for recyclables in the United States is primarily accomplished by a network of 9,000 local recycling programs. The post-consumer recyclables (PCR) Read the entire page →
From page 40... ... 40 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE TABLE 3-3 Post-Industrial (Commercial) Plastics Waste/Scrap Annual Generation Rates in the United States (see Appendix E) Read the entire page →
From page 41... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 41 PCR plastics collection is expensive and typically is the bottleneck for the plastics ecosystem. Post-consumer recycling requires three successes. Read the entire page →
From page 42... ... 42 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE FIGURE 3-5 Access to residential curbside recycling. SOURCE: The Recycling Partnership 2020. Read the entire page →
From page 43... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 43 RCC is typically a service provided by municipalities, which shifts much of the cost of recycling away from producers. RCC is accomplished by waste collection vehicles, either maintained and operated by municipalities or contracted from private companies, serving single-family residences. Read the entire page →
From page 44... ... 44 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE automatically (using a mechanical arm) pick up containers and empty them into the truck. Read the entire page →
From page 45... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 45 (ISRI) have developed specifications for plastic bales intended to facilitate sales (APR 2022b; ISRI 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 46... ... 46 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Driven by the declining acceptance by other countries of plastics waste exports from the United States, the number of recycling facilities in the United States is increasing. Read the entire page →
From page 47... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 47 some to plastics manufacturing companies, some to HDPE pipe makers, and some to PET carpet makers, and some are strictly merchant pellet sellers (Li et al. Read the entire page →
From page 48... ... 48 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Chemical Recycling Chemical recycling of plastics involves breaking down plastics into molecular building blocks (depolymerization) for remanufacturing and reuse. Read the entire page →
From page 49... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 49 used by Eastman Kodak Company for the recovery of DMT from used xray films. However, PET chemical recycling is not yet economical at large scales (Li et al. Read the entire page →
From page 50... ... 50 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE "pyrolysis oil," which can be further processed to yield useful liquids such as naptha and diesel (Tullo 2022c) Read the entire page →
From page 51... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 51 Liquefaction of Plastics Liquefaction involves the conversion of plastic feedstock material under high temperatures (200°C to 450°C) and pressure into an oil in the liquid phase (Li et al. Read the entire page →
From page 52... ... 52 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE (Bottle Bill Resource Guide 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 53... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 53 Again, the reclaimers were entrepreneurs like Talco Plastics, Envision Plastics (now owned by Altium Packaging) , and KW Plastics (which started recycling polypropylene battery cases in 1981) Read the entire page →
From page 54... ... 54 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Decision making regarding virgin plastic versus recycled plastic markets is influenced by a number of factors. When crude oil and natural gas prices are low, virgin petrochemical-derived plastic can be less expensive than recycled plastic, depending on market dynamics for both virgin plastic and plastics waste. Read the entire page →
From page 55... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 55 TABLE 3-5 Post-Consumer Plastics Waste Recycling Potential and Challenges by Type Plastic Type Recyclable Plastic Packaging,a Globally Amount of Plastic Type Recycled in United States (%) Recycling Challenges Potential Recycling Markets PET 72% of PET bottles 15 Lack of supply, contamination, consumer confusion, product degradation, additives, and multiple PET manufacturing processes create products that cannot be recycled together. Read the entire page →
From page 56... ... 56 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE such as China's National Sword Policy that went into effect in 2018, can impact markets significantly (see Appendix E) Read the entire page →
From page 57... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 57 content is expected to drive the global demand for recycled plastic to 5.3 million metric tonnes, which is around 20 percent of global packaging volumes. However, recycling capacity is much higher than currently utilized in the United States. Read the entire page →
From page 58... ... 58 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Increasing demand versus supply has also led to price fluctuations and increases, as seen in Figure 3-10, which shows unit weight prices of recyclable containers made of different materials including PET and HDPE. Supply and demand forces for post-consumer recyclables are unlike those for most commodities because of the disconnect between the value of the recycled material and the reward for recycling. Read the entire page →
From page 59... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 59 Demand for recycled plastics has been increasing because of public interest in reducing plastics waste in the ocean (e.g., NASEM 2022) and other waterways, and in reducing plastic going to landfills (e.g., Greenpeace 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 60... ... 60 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE color additives reduce the value of HDPE and the extent to which it can be recycled (in 2021 bale prices for natural recycled HDPE were almost twice that of colored HDPE; Ravi et al. [see Appendix E] Read the entire page →
From page 61... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 61 • Impediments and challenges to plastics collection and recycling exist and limit the supply of recycled plastics for remanufacturing or reuse. For example, access to supplies of recycled plastics that have consistent quality can be problematic owing to the post-consumer collection process that is not standardized and often single stream, leading to contamination that can require additional processing. Read the entire page →
From page 62... ... 62 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE How2Recycle. Read the entire page →
From page 63... ... MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF PLASTICS WASTE 63 RRS recycle.com. Read the entire page →
From page 64... ... 64 RECYCLED PLASTICS IN INFRASTRUCTURE Vesilind, W W., and Reinhart, D Read the entire page →

From page 33...

... 33 The reuse of plastics waste in infrastructure, or any other application, is dependent on the availability of plastics waste in sufficient quantity and quality, at the time and place of need, for remanufacturing and reuse enterprises. That is to say, the reuse of plastics waste is dependent on the plastics waste management system and all its components.