Page 60 - Plastics News Issue December 2024
P. 60
IN THE NEWS
raw materials, such as oil and natural gas, decomposes into liquid oil, natural gas and
which are used in the manufacture of new solid carbon. Some of the forms of liquid oil
plastics. that can be generated can be utilized in the
manufacturing of new plastics and/or fuels.
♦ Energy Efficiency: Industrial upcycling pro- It proved effective in recycling mixed plastics
cesses are generally beneficial in terms of that cannot be recycled regularly through
energy efficiency than that of making new the normal techniques.
plastics.
♦ Depolymerization: Recycling includes the
♦ Economic Growth: Upcycling leads to new conversion of the plastic polymers to their
jobs meaning production of new and more monomer form, purification of the mono-
business, which forms part of the circular mers, before converting them again to high
economy system and supports local produc- quality plastics. This technique is especially
ers.
good for reusing PET (polyethylene tereph-
Technologies Revolutionizing Plastic Upcy- thalate) that usually fills the plastic bottles.
cling
♦ Solvolysis: Solvolysis dissolves the plastics
New opportunities have appeared due to the in solvents and subdivides these plastics to
development of technologies for the recycling the monomers or further smaller molecules.
of plastic materials. To tackle this problem effec- Recycling can involve the use of various pro-
tively, several unique methods have been devel- cesses to sort the plastics for recycling and
oped to make plastics reusable and transform this process can recycle polyolefins like pol-
plastic waste products into more usefully. Below yethylene and polypropylene among others;
are some of the key technologies making a dif- this process can also aid in the recycling of
ference: plastics mainly through a process through
which some many chemicals can be recov-
1. Chemical Recycling (Chemical Upcycling) ered from the waste plastics.
Chemical recycling or as some people want to These chemical recycling technologies are
call it chemical upcycling is arguably the most unique options for recycling which helps in re-
reasonable form of plastic upcycling today. dressing the loop in waste management by con-
Chemical recycling is not mechanical recycling verting waste plastics into virgin-like plastics.
and in chem recycling, the polymer chains under- They also allow a way of reusing mixed and even
go large chemical reactions and are effectively contaminated plastics that cannot be recycled
chem recycled. Such components can then be through conventional methods.
utilized for the synthesis of additional superior
grade plastics or other desirable products. 2. Enzymatic Recycling
♦ Pyrolysis: Pyrolysis is a process of heating Recycling through enzymes is another young
plastics with good result at a temperature technology being used in upcycling of plastics.
between 350 and 400 degree Celsius in There are particular enzymes identified that are
the presence of hydrogen donor in the ab- active to degrade particular kinds of plastics,
sence of oxygen whereby the plastic waste mainly PET; these are of molecular weights that
60 PLASTICS NEWS December 2024
