#recycle plastics

[intelligentliving]

Google Partners With Ellen MacArthur Foundation To Fight Plastic Pollution

Google is taking steps in order to help fight climate change by teaming up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundations New Plastics Economy Innitiative.

[chemicalworldnews]

Scientific approaches can make it easier to recycle plastic

Most of the 150 million tons of plastics produced around the world every year end up in landfills, the oceans and elsewhere. Less than 9 percent of plastics are recycled in the United States, rising to about 30 percent in Europe.

But new approaches can increase the amount of plastic waste that can be successfully recycled, researchers from the University of Houston and IBM reported a perspective published in the journal Science.

That means developing new plastics that are more easily recycled, along with finding ways to more efficiently recycle existing plastics. These approaches can range from methods to recycle different types of plastics together in one waste stream, avoiding a costly and time-consuming sorting process, as well as methods to break down plastics in a more energy-efficient manner.

“Recent research points the way toward chemical recycling methods with lower energy requirements, compatibilization of mixed plastic wastes to avoid the need for sorting, and expanding recycling technologies to traditionally nonrecyclable polymers,” wrote the article authors, Megan Robertson, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UH and Jeannette Garcia, a polymer chemist at the IBM Almaden Research Center.

Improving methods to recycle existing plastic materials is a key priority.

“New materials enter the market slowly, and thus the biggest impact is in developing more efficient methods to recycle the plastics that are produced in large quantities today,” said Robertson. “One the other hand, research advances can pave the way for more easily recyclable materials for the future.” One example is the category of polymers known as thermosets, which can’t be melted down for repurposing, preventing their recycling with traditional methods.

Read more: Scientific approaches can make it easier to recycle plastic

[mancplastics]

Manchester Plastics Ltd was formed in 1988 to recycle plastics generated within the secondary metals trade and specialise in recycling the PVC from waste

[1000flowersfortheplanet]

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #55 Recycle Plastics

Every area will be different when it comes to this opportunity for recycling. Plastics in Australia are not recycled as well as in some European countries. It’s important that you check what plastics you can put into your recycling bin/collection for your area, bearing in mind that mindlessly putting out everything made of any type of plastic only creates problems for the recycling plant if they can’t deal with it, and will add to their processing costs – which you will pay for in the long term.

Of course the best action would be to avoid purchasing plastic in the first instance, and thereby have no need to think about recycling it. Most plastic ends up in landfill and we all know now that it doesn’t break down for a very long time.