Plastic Recycling
- see movie here
      
Recycling of
plastics that used to end up only at city landfills
or incinerators is increasing around the world. As
with any technological trend, the engineering profession plays
an important role. Discarded plastic products and packaging make
up a growing portion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that by the year
2000, the amount of plastics throw away will be 50 percent
greater than at the beginning of the 1990s. EPA also says that
plastic waste accounts for about one-fifth of all waste in the
waste stream. Over the past two decades, recycling of plastics
has dramatically increased. After years of predictions that
plastics recycling would never be widespread because processes
were inefficient, too expensive or not practical, the tide of
waste headed to the landfill is slowly being turned.
The difference
between a polymer and a plastic
The term “plastics”
is used to describe a wide variety of resins or polymers with
different characteristics and uses. Polymers are long chains of
molecules, a group of many units, taking its name from the Greek
“poly” (meaning “many”) and “meros” (meaning “parts” or
“units”).
The term “polymer”
is often used as a synonym for plastic, but many other types of
molecules — biological and inorganic — are also polymeric. While
all plastics are polymers, not all polymers are plastic.
Polymers are rarely useful in themselves and are most often
modified or compounded with additives (including colors) to form
useful materials. The compounded product is generally termed a
plastic. Most people have little contact with "polymers" because
most articles that they come across are actually modified and
colored and therefore are actually plastics.
Our services include
design, supply, erecting and commissioning of complete plants or
single machines. |
