THE
IMPROVING
ENGINEERING
EDUCATION
ImpEE
PROJECT
Recycling of Plastics
Plastic waste in the UK
3 million tonnes of waste
plastic are produced a year in
the UK.
1 tonne = 20,000 plastic bottles
7% of this is recycled at present
(2005)
An estimated 9.2 billion plastic
bottles are disposed of each
year
200,000 tonnes of plastic
rubbish is being sent 8,000 miles
to China each year for recycling.
Things to think about...
The basic raw materials for plastic
are petroleum and/or natural gas.
Although plastics only consume
around 4% of the worlds oil,
supplies are becoming depleted.
Many plastic products are
reaching the end of their lifecycle,
forming non-biodegradable
mountains of waste plastic.
11% of household waste is plastic,
40% of which is plastic bottles
Biologically produced plastics
Energy consumption of Biological
versus Crude Oil derived plastics
Processing energy is
relatively high.
100
More fossil fuel energy is used
in their production than for
both Polyethylene and PET.
Energy
Nylon
PET
PE
PLA
PHB
50
PHA
Fossil Fuel Requirement
[MJ/kg of plastic]
150
PHA , PHB and PLA are
biologically produced.
Raw Material
So renewable plastics are not
necessarily as
environmentally friendly as
they first appear.
Assessing
embodied
energy
and and
CO2CO2
of plastics
Assessing
embodied
energy
The energy input during manufacturing is not calculated via
thermodynamics because:
Industrial processes have varying efficiencies ranging from a few % to
about 50%
The scrap-fraction ranges from a few % to 80% or more
Some part of the energy to heat, light and maintain the plant must be
included
In any new enterprise there is an energy mortgage to be paid the
energy it cost to build the plant
Instead it is calculated by input-output analysis
Energy in (MJ/hour)
Production
Products out (n/hour)
plant
Energy/product = Energy in/Products out
EXAMPLE: primary production of PET bottles
Oil derivatives
(with embodied energy)
Total plant energy
(inc. transport, heat, light)
Energy mortgage
PET
production
plant
Bottle
blowmolding
plant
Energy/bottle =
total energy in
number of bottles out
PET granules
(with aggregated
embodied energy)
Energy/kg PET =
total energy in
kg of PET out
Total plant energy
(inc. transport, heat, light)
Energy mortgage
Life-Cycle Analysis
In addition to the energy
embodied in the plastic during
production and manufacturing,
products also require energy
during use and disposal.
An analysis that considers this
whole process is referred to as
life-cycle analysis.
The next slide shows the results
of such an analysis of a plastic
drink container.
Energy breakdown for PE bottle
Eco-impact per unit of function
Function: contain 1 litre of fluid
Glass
PE
PET
Alu
Steel
Container
Type
Mass
[g]
Mass/volume
[g/litre]
Energy/Mass
[MJ/kg]
Energy/Volume
[MJ/litre]
325
38
25
20
45
433
38
62
45
102
14
80
84
200
23
8.2
3.2
5.4
9.0
2.4
The winner is
steel.
The losers are
glass and
aluminium.
Recycling changes the picture a little but not simple
Things to think about
Plastics are not necessarily the waste and
energy culprits that some people think they
are. Plastics can be very energy efficient.
It takes less energy to manufacture a plastic
ketchup bottle than a glass ketchup bottle.
And since plastics are lightweight, it takes
less energy to transport a truckload of plastic
ketchup bottles than a truckload of glass
ketchup bottles.
Up to 40% less fuel is used to transport
drinks in plastic bottles compared to glass
bottles
Why Recycle?
In landfill, both
synthetic and naturally
occurring polymers
dont get the necessary
exposure to UV and
microbes to degrade.
Here they are taking
up space and none of
the energy put into
making them is being
reclaimed.
Photo of tip.
Why Recycle?
Reclaiming the energy stored in the polymers
can be done through incineration, but this can
cause environmental damage by release of toxic
gases into the atmosphere.
Recycling is a viable alternative in getting back
some of this energy in the case of some
polymers.
As petroleum prices increase it is becoming more
financially viable to recycle polymers rather than
produce them from raw materials.
Recycling of polymers: the reality
In-house scrap (generated at the source of production) is near-100% recycled
already.
Recycling of used plastics (here PET bottles): few plastic recycling plants make a
profit. Many have closed.
Why, if recycling is energy-efficient? And is it?
Collection is time-intensive, so expensive
Sorting of mixed plastic waste is difficult contamination
is inevitable.
Removing labels, print, all but impossible at 100% success
rate
Contamination of any sort compromises re-use in hi-tech
applications (a carbonated water bottle is a pressure
vessel a failure is unacceptable to the supermarkets that
sell them)
The consequence: most plastic (apart from in-house) is reused in lower-grade applications
PET: cheap carpets, fleeces
PE and PP: block board, park benches
Problems with recycling plastics
PET and PVC have many problems with cross
contamination as the two polymers appear very
similar to the naked eye and share the same
specific gravity so cannot be separated by
conventional float-sink techniques used in the
plastic recycling industry.
The correct separation of plastics is extremely
important. Just one PVC bottle in a batch of 10,000
PET bottles can ruin the entire melt!
Energy (and use) audit of recycling of PET
Used plastic bottles
(inc. collection transport energy)
Total plant energy
(inc. transport, heat, light)
Energy mortgage
Polymer
sorting,
cleaning,
dicing,
packaging
plant
Plant for use of
recycled PET
Recycled PET granules
(with aggregated embodied energy
-- and contaminates)
Total plant energy
(inc. transport, heat, light)
Energy mortgage
Energy per kg of fleece =
total energy in
out
kg ofkgfleece
of fleece out
Energies and prices of virgin and recycled plastics
Embodied energy,
Price*,
Embodied energy,
Price*,
Commodity
virgin material virgin material recycled material
recycled
plastics
(MJ/kg)
($/kg)
(MJ/kg)
material ($/kg)
HDPE
77 - 85
1.9 2.0
35 - 45
0.84 0.97
PP
75 - 83
1.8 1.85
35 - 45
0.99 1.1
PET
79 - 88
2.0 2.1
60 - 64
1.1 1.2
PS
96 - 105
1.5 1.6
40 - 50
0.75 0.86
PVC
63 - 70
1.4 1.5
35 - 40
0.77 0.99
*Spot prices, November 2005
The messages:
Both the embodied energy and price of recycled plastics are about half that of
virgin material
The lower price reflects the lower quality of the recycled material, limiting its use
Because of this the contribution of recycling to current plastic consumption is
small
Recycling of polymers: the reality
Because of the problems outlined on the previous slides, the
contribution of recycling to current plastic consumption is small.
Virgin Production
Recycled Production
Plastic production
(millions of tonnes / year)
5
4
3
2
1
0
HDPE
PP
PET
PS
PVC
Things to think about?
Since most oil is
extracted to be
burned directly as
fuel, is it so wrong
to turn it into plastic
first, and then burn
it to recover the
energy?
Things to think about
China drives the global waste trade,
importing more than 3 million tonnes of
waste plastic a year.
Western plastic companies are setting up in
China, but some of the poorest people are
employed to sort and recycle the plastic.
Is it better to send rubbish to China to be
recycled than to put it in landfill in Britain?
How plastics are sorted
How the recycling occurs
1. The recyclables can be collected from individual
homes or from collection points such as tips,
schools and supermarkets. After transport to the
recycling plant, plastics are hand sorted
according to their recycling code. Some materials
recovery facilities can mechanically sort different
plastic codes. Each plastic type is processed
separately.
How the recycling occurs
2.The plastic is sliced into flakes and the flakes go
through a washing process.
3.The clean plastic flakes are melted together,
extruded through small holes, and chopped
into pellets.
How the recycling occurs
4.The bags of recycled plastic pellets are taken to
factories where they are melted and made into
new products.
5.In the case of soft drink bottles the recycled
pellets are combined with virgin material fresh
from petroleum. These are then melted and
moulded into preforms.
How the recycling occurs
6.The bottles are blown into another mould to
form the full size bottle this is often done at the
bottling plant where they are filled and sealed.
7.Once consumed they are delivered back to the
recycling plant after household recycling.
Recycling Statistics
Where Recycled PET Ends Up
15%
16%
5%
3%
4%
Fiber
57%
Fiber
Strapping
Food/Beverage Containers
Non-Food containers
Film Sheet
Other
Other includes: Compounded
Resin (2%), Tolled (1%), Clean
Export (1%)
A different viewpoint...
It takes one day to
collect a kilo of thin
plastic bags from a tip
by hand
For one kilo, the rag
picker typically earns
R1.5 in India
Some cities in India
are banning the use of
thin plastic bags
University of Cambridge, 2005
This material was produced as a part of the
ImpEE Project at the University of Cambridge. It
may be reproduced, modified and used freely for
educational purposes.
ImpEE is based at the Department of Engineering at the
University of Cambridge and is funded by the CMI Institute.
