What is plastic recycling used for?

In China, recycling is basically a matter of crushing and sorting, and then reprocessing into new products, but our recycling rates are still very low

So how do we

better deal with these old plastic bottles?

The Dutch designer Dave Hakkens

opened his mind and developed four machines

and called them Version

The four machines are a plastic crusher, an extruder, an injection molding machine, and a rotational molding machine

that grind plastic items of all colors and colors into crumbs by means of a high-powered crusher machine

. colorful plastic items into crumbs

and mixing different materials to create new and exotic product styles

or making a small product from a mold designed by Dave Hakkens

A variety of products

from containers, cutlery, cellphone cases, clocks

wall tiles and jewelry to climbing wall supports, etc.

are made by the machines, which are also known as rotational molding machines.

Additionally, Dave Hakkens and his team have filmed a series of

tutorial videos on how to set up and build the four machines

and have created a website to share the knowledge

so that more people can get involved

and reuse the waste that's around them

. Dave Hekkens' hope is that

these simple plastic workshops will be like

grocery stores in every neighborhood

in every corner of the world

(website: /)

And also in the Netherlands

KWS Infra, a company based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

has come up with the idea of a "waste plastic workshop". KWS Infra in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

is planning to build the world's first plastic driveway in 2018

The materials needed to build the highway will all be recycled waste plastics

which will be sourced from the sea, or from waste incineration plants

The company will take the cleaned plastics and put them into a factory in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The company will take the cleaned-up plastic and turn it into

plastic "road plates" that look like Lego blocks

All you have to do to build a highway is to put the templates

together on the created roadbed

That saves time and costs, and is a good way to use the waste

The structure of the plastic highway is designed to be hollow and

hollow

The plastic highway is made of a plastic material that is not recycled, and is not used in the future. Plastic highways are designed to be hollow

and easy to accommodate all kinds of cables and pipes

What's more, compared to asphalt or gravel roads

these plastic paved highways are much more resistant to heat

and can withstand temperatures ranging from as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius

to as high as 80 degrees Celsius

and therefore last two to three years longer than asphalt roads

. Two to three years

Plans for the "waste plastic highway" are still in the experimental stage

The design team is conducting repeated road tests

to ensure that the road will not be slippery in rain, snow and wet weather

The plan is to complete construction in three years

The project is expected to be completed within three years. Construction completed

Meow Meow feels that both Version and Plastic Highway

are the beginning of technological reforms for the betterment of the eco-system

Being a part of the earth

Helping the world to reduce unnecessary pollution

Maintaining a good eco-system is everyone's responsibility

What's more, you can make your own favorite gadgets! your favorite gadgets!

Sell scrap on the scrap home, your questions I answer

The widespread use of plastic products to human civilization has brought great impetus to the effect of plastic has now become the main raw material or auxiliary materials in various fields. Plastic products have penetrated into all areas of life and production, plastic consumption has been showing a rising trend. However, large-scale production and use is inevitably accompanied by the generation and discharge of large amounts of waste. According to statistics, in the municipal solid waste of developed industrial countries, waste plastics accounted for about 10-20% of the volume, and every year all mankind has to discard 40 million tons of waste plastics. Waste plastic as garbage affects the cityscape, endangers the environment, forms huge "white pollution", causes groundwater and soil pollution, hinders the growth of plants and animals, and jeopardizes the health and survival of human beings. Therefore, the recycling of waste plastics has become a very urgent social problem for human beings.

Beginning in the 1980s, plastic waste treatment technology has been gradually developed. After more than 10 years of efforts, great progress has been made in the treatment of waste plastics. At present, the methods of treating waste plastics can be roughly divided into: incineration, landfill, degradation, as well as recycling and utilization. From the perspective of environmental protection and the realization of sustainable development, recycling is the most ideal approach.

Recycling methods and uses of waste plastics:

The recycling method refers to the re-melting of waste plastics to make low-value recycled plastics again. According to the nature of the raw material, waste plastic reuse can be divided into two categories: simple recycling and composite recycling. Simple recycling is a single species of waste plastic direct recycling or after simple processing to be used. Simple regeneration of recycled waste plastics is characterized by a relatively clean, single component. The use of relatively simple technology and equipment can be recovered to a good nature of the recycled plastics, its performance is similar to the new material, to a large extent, can be used as new material. 

Composite recycling is a mixed waste as raw materials, and then participate in other ingredients of the use of almost all thermoplastic waste plastics, and even mixed with a small amount of thermosetting waste plastics can be regenerated recycling. Generally speaking, the nature of composite recycled plastics is not stable, easy to become brittle, so it is often used to prepare lower grade products, such as: building materials, fillers, garbage bags, micro-perforated sandals, raincoats and packaging materials for instruments. 

Producing liquid fuels from waste plastics

Japan's Fuji Recycling Company uses ZSM-5 catalysts to make waste polyethylene, polypropylene, and other polyolefin plastics into fuel oil by crushing, heating, and decomposing the process. Each kilogram of this waste plastic can reportedly generate 0.5 liters of gasoline, 0.5 liters of kerosene and diesel fuel, and the cost of processing each ton of waste plastic is $235.

Japan's Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Technology has turned waste plastics into a liquid fuel similar to gasoline through the processes of granulation, heating, decomposition and condensation. Each kilogram of waste plastic is said to produce about one liter of fuel.

The University of Kentucky in Lexington, U.S.A., uses catalysts such as HZSM-5 and treats waste plastics and liquid raw coal through processes such as pressurization, heating and pressure retention to turn them into high calorific value, sulfur-free, high-quality fuel oil. It is said that the oil yield of waste cheese plastic bottles is 86%, waste polyethylene plastic bottles is 88%, waste soda plastic bottles is 93%, and the cost of producing fuel oil from waste plastics and liquid raw coal is $27-28 per barrel.

◆ Producing chemicals from waste plastics

Germany's Hoechst turns waste plastics into water gas through gasification and other means, which is the raw material for synthetic alcohols. It is claimed that for every ton of waste polyolefin plastic processed, 0.8 tons of methanol can be obtained.

Germany's Rule turns waste plastics into liquids and gases by means of air insulation and heat decomposition, with the liquid being the raw material for gasoline production and the gas being the raw material for water gas production.

Italy Amt company developed waste plastic regeneration equipment, can be discarded polyolefin plastic regeneration, its main process is: cutting, crushing, cleaning, deposition, separation, drying, extrusion. Its biggest feature is that it can regenerate waste plastics with impurity content up to 25%, and remove the metal, stone and other hard debris from it.

◆ With the waste plastic production of light industrial products

French researchers put forward a waste of mineral water plastic bottles to produce polyvinyl chloride chemical fiber new method, which includes crushing, heating, melting, purification, filament extraction and spinning and other processes. It is claimed that 70% of this chemical fiber and 30% of the wool blended can weave a beautiful sweater to every 27 waste mineral water plastic bottles made of chemical fiber, can weave a sweater.

◆ With waste plastic production of building materials

A company in Louisiana, the United States, through crushing, granulation, heating, melting, extrusion and other processes, waste plastic into synthetic wood is relatively new. It is claimed that the cost of producing synthetic wood from waste plastics is only one-third of the cost of producing synthetic wood from general plastics. Texas State University in the United States proposed a liquid waste beverage bottles instead of cement paste production of concrete sex method, this method can greatly reduce the production cost of concrete.

A Japanese company proposed a plastic made of 2-3 centimeters in diameter sphere of the method, the fire resistance and strength of this sphere is no less than slag, can replace the slag used in civil construction.

Germany recently proposed a method of adding 6%-20% waste plastic particles in clay to produce lightweight insulation bricks. This porous insulation bricks than ordinary insulation bricks to improve the thermal insulation performance of more than 1 times.

The Finnish Highway Research Center puts forward a way through the crushing, heating and other ways to add 30% of waste plastic to asphalt for road construction method. With this method of paving the road elastic, and wheel friction when the noise generated by the very small.

◆ Plastic alloying

"Alloying" is an important way to improve the performance of polymers. Polymer alloy, also known as polymer **** mixture is the performance of a uniform but contains two or more different structures of the multi-component polymer system, the unclassified waste plastics disassembled and ground, add reinforcement, capacitance and additives mixed alloying, and then extrusion molding, can be made of polymer alloys with certain characteristics. the early 1990s, the U.S. Latrguez University, the waste plastics recycling center of the waste plastics will be direct Melt extrusion production of artificial wood, the city of Chicago with this material manufacturing dock, boundary wall and re-decorated 563 parks; Belgium Advanced Recycling Technology Corporation will be mixed plastic alloying, the production of plastic wood made of fencing, skipping, park seats, road signs, and so on. 

Recycling of thermoplastics

◆ Waste polyethylene (PE) recycling

Japan's Industrial Technology and Development Laboratory developed a mixture of waste paper and polyethylene, by a special ratio of synthetic wood into a new process, the process of a certain size of the waste paper, together with the pieces of polyethylene sent to the mixer, which is about the ratio of 3:1 to 4:1, while coloring into wood-like materials. At the same time coloring into wood-like materials, mixer water jacket to maintain the temperature of 100 ° C to remove moisture in the waste paper, when mixed, the rotation of the mixer paddle between the shear friction, so that the temperature of the mixture rises to 130 ° C, at this time the polyethylene melting, in the water jacket kind of water to make the mixture cooled, it will be formed into a coloring polyethylene sheet of paper body, and then extruded to generate the column, in the hydraulic molding before, with the Then it is extruded to form a column, which is kept in a semi-solid state by a far-infrared heater before being hydraulically molded. It is said that this synthetic material is similar to natural wood, and that it is processable and structurally sound.

◆ Waste polystyrene (PS) plastic recycling

Japan's UBE and cycon company *** with the development of the use of natural solvents "limonene" on the foamed polystyrene (EPS) recycling, and achieved success.

Waste EPS recovery and recycling technology is generally heated by hot air, friction heat and other methods to make it melt, reduce the volume to block or granular recycling, recycled EPS particles can also be mixed with new particles, but in the process of heating and shrinkage, due to oxidation will cause the plastic physical properties of the reduction of the coloring, the cost of recycling to increase the impact on the quality of the problem, the new development of the Reno system with a natural solvent limonene dissolved in a natural solvent, the solvent is used in the recycling of EPS, and has been successful. Newly developed Reno system with natural solvent limonene dissolved in the regeneration processing equipment, filtration, separation of solvents, granulation, made of regenerated polystyrene, this method of regeneration of polystyrene, in addition to being used as raw materials for injection molding and extrusion molding, but also as a raw material for regeneration of the use of EPS.

The use of PS can be dissolved in aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons and other organic solvents, can be made of discarded PS foam coatings or adhesives. There are manufacturers have experimented with PS foam and benzene, kerosene mixed at a certain ratio and then add the appropriate amount of inorganic fillers and inert materials made of modified waterproof materials. The use of PS can be dissolved in asphalt and rosin nature, with the waste of PS foam to change the melting point of asphalt, can improve the strength of asphalt and improve the asphalt winter cracking and summer viscosity and to overcome the shortcomings of rosin brittle.

The use of waste polystyrene synthesis of brominated polystyrene flame retardant has been successful, the use of chlorine trioxide as a catalyst, waste polystyrene and bromine electrophilic substitution reaction to synthesize brominated polystyrene flame retardant, flame retardant effect is good, does not release toxic substances, not only for the recycling of non-PS foam to find new ways to use and the resulting brominated polystyrene flame retardant flame retardant, thermal stability have reached or The flame retardancy and thermal stability of the resulting brominated polystyrene flame retardant is better than that of pure polystyrene.

The new process of non-solvent hot medium defoaming and recycling is a new way of thinking after many comparisons and explorations, which is very different from all the current domestic and foreign technical ideas, i.e., non-solvent hot medium defoaming and reducing the capacity of the process of waste polystyrene foam is thrown into the defoaming tank, and at the same time, adding a hot medium heated to a certain temperature, so as to make it in contact with waste foam and shrinking materials falling into the heated storage tank with the waste foam and being defoamed, so that it will not be used in any way. Shrinkage of the material together into the heated storage tank, and then the defoamed material and the media used to separate, can be defoamed recycled material, if the defoaming tank sealed, realize the operation under pressure, the whole process time used for 30-50s.

Because of the occurrence of non-reaction and solvation, and low-temperature treatment of defoamed polystyrene foam by the macromolecular structure and properties have not been damaged, the defoamed recycling process, the polystyrene foam by the defoamed recycling process, the defoamed recycling process, the defoamed recycling process, the defoamed recycling process. damaged, the material recovered by defoaming can be powdered into granules, which is convenient for transportation and use.

◆ Recycling and utilization of waste PET

PET is commonly known as polyester resin, is widely used in packaging materials for beverages and so on. In Japan, 80% of PET bottles are used to contain cool drinks, PET bottles are composed of C, H, O, can be burned like wood and paper into water and carbon dioxide, does not produce any harmful gases, every kilogram of PET plastic combustion produces about 5500 calories of heat, due to the complexity of the composition of the bottle as unlike other plastic bottles, PET bottles are only made up of a single resin, it is relatively easy to recycle.

In the past, the Japanese PET bottle recycled resin is mainly used to manufacture fibers, sheets and non-food packaging bottles, such as the famous shoe manufacturer to produce a recycled PET bottle as raw material for hiking shoes. Patagonia, a U.S. apparel company, produces outdoor sweatshirts made from fibers recycled from PET bottles.

Chemical recycling method to degrade PET into monomers to re-synthesize PET new material has been emphasized. Common PET depolymerization method with methanol as a solvent methanol decomposition method; glycogen alcohol decomposition method with ethylene glycol (EG) as a solvent and hydrogenation decomposition method with acid or alkali-based aqueous solution, and so on. Recycling of waste thermosetting plastics

◆ Waste phenolic resin (PF) recycling

Phenolic resin pyrolysis can be used to produce activated carbon, in the high temperature of 600 ℃ for 30 minutes, PF can be carbonized to form carbide, with hydrochloric acid solution to dissolve away the ash in the carbide, increasing the specific surface area of the carbide, and then in the 850 ℃ high temperature with water vapor spraying. The activated carbon is obtained with a yield of 12%, and the specific surface area of the activated carbon reaches 1900m2/g, with strong adsorption, and the adsorption capacity of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate is greater than that of general-purpose activated carbon by 3-4 times.

◆ Waste unsaturated polyester (SMC) recycling

SMC recycling is mainly used as filler, such as SMC crushed, as a pre-fabricated whole model of plastic filler, the experimental results show that the SMC recycled material containing a large particle size of the tensile strength, modulus and impact strength of the BMC nature of the decline, while containing a small particle size of the performance of the decline in performance is not significant. In addition, it can also be used to recover the fibers in it, such as: SMC heated to 350-400 ℃, and will be crushed, cut off, with hydrochloric acid treatment of the residue, recovery of glass fibers in SMC.

◆ Recycling of waste polyurethane (PU)

Polyurethane (PU) is a condensation polymer material, which can be hydrolyzed into polyol and polyamine, but the purification process is difficult. For PU soft foam can be recycled with adhesive, compression molding reuse or low temperature recycling as filler. For the reaction injection molding of polyurethane (RIM-PU) recycling, generally take the foam or polyester after crushing, mixed with certain materials, after a certain process, defoaming or extrusion molding. Although the waste PU can be recycled by the above methods, it is difficult to recycle, and the economic benefits are not high.PU has the characteristic of not being able to degrade naturally, so it is imperative to research and develop degradation and recycling. At present, Japan, Germany and other countries are actively researching and developing the biodegradation of PU, such as cellulose/lignin/bark modified PU, starch-modified PU. In addition, the German Bayer Chemical Company developed a hydrolysis degradation of PU products using a special extruder, which can be purified to obtain the diols and diamines. alcoholysis of PU is also currently used in the pathway of the waste PU can be polymorphic mixtures after alcoholysis.

Composite materials recycling Composite materials recycling mainly by three methods

(1) powder direct utilization method (2) thermal decomposition utilization method (3) burning but the use of the method

First of all the various composite materials are classified, identified, disintegrated, cut off, crushed. Then from the direct use of powder as the preferred method of re-resourcing. Can be applied through micro-fine pulverization technology, some thermosetting resin-based composites and non-metallic inorganic materials based on other composites for the refinement of its application products to do more profiles, directly with a variety of adhesives remanufactured into a variety of new composite materials. Thermal decomposition and utilization method is to recover some acrylate monomers, as well as combustible gases and liquid fuels. Also separated some heat-resistant glass fibers and inorganic powder and another application. Combustion method is to replace the composite combustible organisms for power generation fuel combustion, recovery of warm water, hot air and steam, mainly energy recovery. If the above three methods can not be dealt with can only take the method of burial.

The above information can show that the waste plastic discarded will cause environmental pollution, however, after recycling, not only can eliminate pollution, and can be converted into excellent material resources. It is a promising industry.