| Abstract: | Polymer recycling must conform to thermodynamic laws and economic restrictions. The objective of polymer recycling is twofold: (1) the reduction of rubbish and the burden of waste polymers on the environment, and (2) the conservation of resources. The environmental burden should be considered as part of the cost for employing polymers. Polymer input to landfills can be reduced by source reduction, materials substitution, recycling, incineration, and/or degradation or reduction to low molecular weight compounds. While the value of separated polymers is considerably greater than that of commingled ones, the separation is often difficult and requires an energy investment for “demixing”. With present technology, this has not been justified for more than about 25% of the polymer waste feedstock. For the rest, energy recovery through incineration appears to be the thermodynamically and economically sensible route. |
