Mass-recycling of polymer waste

Abstract

Plastics has been part of our lives for many years. It is a form of convenience in many industries. Plastics are a versatile family of materials which have gathered attention recently due to their ubiquity in the global economy. Plastics are largely known after the 1950s. Ever since then, plastics have rapidly become one of the most common materials on the planet. Plastics are versatile, lightweight, flexible, moisture-resistant, strong, and relatively inexpensive. Those attractive qualities led humans to have such an over-consumption of plastic goods worldwide. However, most plastic products ultimately result as waste due to their extremely durable nature and high resistance to decomposition[1]. Manufacturers also make use of plastics in durable goods, such as appliances, furniture, and other products. With the high use of plastics in our society, over consumption of plastic has led to pollution and many environmental impacts. Plastics are hard to decompose and that makes disposing it a very difficult task. This has led to the space limitation of landfill to dispose of the plastics. Therefore, a way to alternatively make use of the used plastics is to be made to be able to reduce the plastic waste created by humans through mass recycling and making good use of the recycled results. In the cause of countering this problem the need to implement ways to trap plastic waste for a longer period is of the main investigation in this report. The focus is to create an alternate use for the plastics to mass recycle and reduce the need to continuously recycle the plastic when it is remade into another item.