For many years, the main method of recycling plastics is mechanical recycling, which usually melts the plastic fragments and makes them into particles of new products. Although these materials are still the same plastic polymers, their recycling times are limited, and this method is highly dependent on fossil fuels.
At present, the waste plastics in China mainly include plastic film, plastic wire and woven goods, foamed plastics, plastic packaging boxes and containers, daily-use plastic products (plastic bottles, pipe fittings, food containers, etc.), plastic bags and agricultural plastic films. In addition, the annual consumption of plastics for automobiles in China has reached 400000 tons, and the annual consumption of plastics for electronic appliances and household appliances has reached more than 1 million tons. These products have become one of the important sources of waste plastics after scrapping.
Nowadays, more and more attention is paid to chemical recovery. Chemical recycling can transform plastics into fuels, raw materials of petrochemical products and even monomers. It can not only recycle more waste plastics, but also reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. While protecting the environment and solving the plastic pollution crisis, it can also reduce carbon emissions.
In many plastic chemical recovery technologies, pyrolysis technology has always occupied a leading position. In recent months, pyrolysis oil production facilities in Europe and America have mushroomed on both sides of the Atlantic. New projects related to synthetic resin recovery technology are also developing, of which four are polyethylene terephthalate (PET) projects, all located in France.
Compared with mechanical recovery, one of the important advantages of chemical recovery is that it can obtain the quality of the original polymer and a higher plastic recovery rate. However, although chemical recovery can help the recycling plastic economy, each method has its own shortcomings if it is to be applied on a large scale.
Plastic waste is not only a global pollution problem, but also a raw material with high carbon content, low cost and can be obtained globally. Circular economy has also become the future development direction of the plastic industry. With the promotion of catalytic technology, chemical recovery shows a good economic prospect.
Post time: Aug-16-2022