Did you know that mechanical recycling is an efficient plastic waste management technique that enhances the circular economy?
Find out all the details in this article!
We will talk about...
- Mechanical recycling: What is it about?
- Steps of the recycling process
- Mechanical recycling and chemical recycling: What are their differences?
- Impact of mechanical recycling on the circular economy
Mechanical recycling: What is it about?
According to the European Union's Agenda 2030, all plastic packaging must be recyclable or reusable by that date.
Mechanical recycling arises as a good strategy to meet these new requirements and regulations that are having a strong impact on the development of the plastic sector.
This practice comprises several process steps, collection, sorting, washing, shredding, melting and transformation of plastic waste, aiming to get a secondary raw plastic material ready to be used again.
Keep learning: Post-industrial vs. Post-consumer recycled plastic
It is a recycling plastic waste process that is constantly evolving and that allows the production of a second material to be used in the manufacture of new plastic products: packaging, bags, flooring, auto parts, tools, and many more.
Advantages of mechanical recycling
Mechanical recycling of plastic products offers great advantages for the environment, avoiding the accumulation of waste, which is one of the biggest pollution problems worldwide.
In addition, this practice also brings advantages for communities and great benefits to companies that opt for recycled or recyclable products.
Let's look at the most important advantages that mechanical recycling of plastic materials provides to society, the planet and businesses.
- It substantially reduces plastic waste that is sent to landfills that might take centuries to decompose. Recycling encourages a new life for plastic, preventing it from becoming waste.
- Protects natural resources by reducing the excessive extraction process of virgin and natural raw materials, minimizing, exponentially, the environmental impact which requires high amounts of fossil fuels.
- Creates jobs as a result of the various proceses required in mechanical recycling, for example during the collection or sorting of plastics, having a positive impact on the country's economy.
- Saves energy as it avoids the extraction of energy-intensive natural resources, promoting cost savings for companies by minimizing energy consumption.
- Promotes a circular economy in the world through sustainable development, which seeks to preserve natural resources and care for the environment.
Steps of the recycling process
Mechanical recycling is a multi-steps process. After collecting the plastic products these are the steps:
Sorting
This is the first step of the mechanical recycling of plastics. It involves their separation by types of resins: HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP, and so on.
They will also be separated according to color and shape, for example, hard plastic, bags, foam…
Shredding
After the classification of each type of plastic, the stage of fragmentation into small pieces of plastic that will pass to the next stage begins.
Washing
The plastic fragments are washed with water in order to eliminate impurities and contaminants.
Drying
After being washed, the plastics begin a drying process using special machinery that allows them to maintain a controlled humidity of 3-5% for the next phase.
Extrusion
In the final stage, the dry small pieces of plastics are melted by heating through an extruder machine where they are conveyed by a screw conveyor to a die that creates continuous filaments that are cooled with water at room temperature.
Finally, they are cut in a granulating machine that forms granules of recycled plastic material that will be packaged.
Mechanical recycling and chemical recycling: What are their differences?
Although the mechanical recycling system is very widespread and developed, there are alternatives for those materials whose mechanical recyclability is impossible. This is chemical recycling. The most important difference between mechanical and chemical recycling is the process used by each of these recycling techniques.
While the mechanical process keeps the polymers stable, the chemical process breaks them down and then regroups them.
Another key difference is the higher cost of chemical recycling today, which tends to limit its usefulness in many budgets. Even more than 90% of recycled material in Europe comes from mechanical recycling.
However, these technologies are not substitutes but complementary in themselves in order to achieve higher material recovery rates and thus prevent plastic materials from being considered waste and ending up in landfills. It seems that research on chemical recycling is working towards achieving economically viable and industrializable alternatives in the near future.
Impact of mechanical recycling on the circular economy
We could say that mechanical recycling is synonymous with circular economy.
If we consider its benefits for the environment, we will understand that it is a process that, by recycling waste and creating new materials that can be reused, drives a key benefit: business and environmental sustainability.
Keep learning: Circular Packaging: the commitment to circular solutions in packaging
It also saves energy consumption and reduces emissions generated by refining and manufacturing processes.
Reduce, Recycle and Reuse are 3 essential pillars of the circular economy. And mechanical recycling is a widespread option that promotes these practices.
At APS we seek to collaborate responsibly with the circular economy. We are part of and participate in key projects to achieve it. A clear example of this is the “Envase X Envase” project.
The project seeks to achieve the declassification of hazardous waste and its total integration into new packaging to promote the circular economy in the agrochemical sector. Get to know it!
Find out our packaging solutions and be part of the circular economy!
