An Overview to Plastic Recycling and the Process.
                     An Overview to Plastic 
Recycling and the Process
Introduction
• Plastic recycling refers to the process of recovering waste or scrap plastic and 
reprocessing the materials into functional and useful products. This activity is known 
as the plastic recycling process.
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Goal of recycling plastic
• The goal of recycling plastic is to reduce high rates of plastic pollution while putting 
less pressure on virgin materials to produce brand new plastic products. 
• This approach helps to conserve resources and diverts plastics from landfills or 
unintended destinations such as oceans. 
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The Need for Recycling Plastic
• Plastics are durable, lightweight and inexpensive materials. They can readily be 
molded into various products which find uses in a plethora of applications.
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What Plastics Are Recyclable?
• PS (Polystyrene) – Example: foam hot drink cups, plastic cutlery, containers, and 
yogurt.
• PP (Polypropylene) – Example: lunch boxes, take-out food containers, ice cream 
containers.
• LDPE (Low-density polyethylene) – Example: garbage bins and bags.
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What Plastics Are Recyclable cont.
• PVC (Plasticised Polyvinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride)—Example: cordial, 
juice or squeeze bottles.
• HDPE (High-density polyethylene) – Example: shampoo containers or milk 
bottles.
• PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) – Example: fruit juice and soft drink bottles.
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The Plastic Recycling Process
• The simplest of plastic recycling processes involves collecting, sorting, 
shredding, washing, melting, and pelletizing. The actual processes vary based on 
plastic resin or type of plastic product.
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Step wise process
• Step One: Sorting plastics automatically or with a manual sort to make sure all the 
contaminants are removed from the plastic waste stream. 
• Step Two: Melting down plastics directly into a new shape or shredding into flakes 
then melting down before being finally processed into granulates
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Advances in Plastic Recycling
• Ongoing innovations in recycling technologies have made the plastic 
recycling process easier and more cost-effective. 
• Such technologies include reliable detectors and sophisticated decision and 
recognition software that collectively enhance the productivity and 
accuracy of automatic sorting of plastics.
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Advances in Plastic Recycling 
Cont.
• Another notable innovation in plastic recycling has been in finding higher 
value applications for recycled polymers in closed-loop recycling processes.
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Challenges for the Plastic Recycling 
Industry
• Plastic recycling faces many challenges, ranging from mixed plastics to 
hard-to-remove residues. 
• The cost-effective and efficient recycling of the mixed plastic stream is 
perhaps the biggest challenge facing the recycling industry.
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