Page 40 - Plastics News November 2025

FEATURE NEWS

large portion of wastes and retain the original base chemicals, oil, or even hydrogen by means
quality of the material. This is an important move of catalysts and controlled heat. This not only
towards the manufacturing of a circular econo- favors plastic waste management solutions but
my of plastics where waste will be transformed also drives the plastic-to-fuel conversion indus-
into a valuable raw material. try, which is becoming more commonly popular
as a two-fold positive environmental and finan-
Recycling Core Key Example Ap-
Method Principle Advantage plication cial objective.
Mechanical Re- Physical repro- Cost-effective PET bottles,
cycling Process cessing through for single-type HDPE contain- Companies such as Eastman, BASF, and SABIC
shredding, plastics ers
melting, and have already commercialized pilot plants based
remolding on advanced technologies of plastic recycling
Chemical Recy- Depolymeriza- Handles mixed Multi-layer
cling of Plastics tion or pyrolysis and contami- packaging, to convert mixed plastic waste into high-quali-
to recover origi- nated plastics plastic films ty feedstock. Their actions are an indication of
nal monomers
Plastic-to-Fuel Thermal break- Produces diesel, Energy re- the increased dedication to the development of
Conversion down of plastics gasoline, or covery from a functional circular economy in plastics, where
into fuels syngas non-recyclable
plastics there is no waste material.
This table shows the increasing diversification of PET Recycling Technology: Rediscovering
plastic waste reduction innovative technologies. Packaging Sustainability
Both of the strategies are win-win and will result
in the creation of the future of plastic produc- The packaging also contributes to the greatest
tion, which is conducive to the environment. plastic waste in the world. In this case, PET recy-
cling technology is important. Polyethylene tere-
Plastic Recycling Chemical Recycling: Game phthalate (PET) in bottles and containers is one
Changer of the not very many plastics that can be easily
reused severally.
The global sustainability requirements have
boosted research on the use of chemical recy- The latest technologies in recycling of plastics
cling to improve sustainability in industrial ecol- used in PET include new technologies in solid-
ogy. Chemical recycling of the polymer restores state polymerization and depolymerization,
the polymer totally, unlike the mechanical recy- which are used in modern PET recycling tech-
cling process, which degrades the polymer every nology. These methods clean and recycle PET
time it is recycled. The technique converts plas- back to its original power, enabling it to be put
tic waste into raw chemical feedstocks, which back into the food and beverage supply chain.
may be recycled in production, with almost zero With PET manufacturers incorporating sustain-
degradation. able innovation of polymers, bottles are being

Chemical recycling of plastics is also a particularly made that reuse the materials that can be recy-
promising option when it comes to removing the cled and even ones made of recycled materials,
challenge of recycling hard-to-recycle materials completing the circle of material usage.
such as multi-layer films, which conventional sys- Interestingly, a more general circular economy
tems are not able to efficiently process. Chemi- in the plastics movement is being tested on the
cal recyclers can transform plastic polymers into PET. Companies like Brands utilizing 100% re-

40 PLASTICS NEWS November 2025