Recycling of Plastics in the United States: Plastic Material Flows and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Recycling Processes.
| Autor: | Smith RL; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, United States., Takkellapati S; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, United States., Riegerix RC; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Land and Emergency Management, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, Washington, District of Columbia 20004, United States. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering [ACS Sustain Chem Eng] 2022 Feb 02; Vol. 10, pp. 2084-2096. |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06845 |
| Abstrakt: | As efforts are made toward establishing a circular economy that engages in activities that maintain resources at their highest values for as long as possible, an important aspect is understanding the systems which allow recycling to occur. In this article a common plastic, polyethylene terephthalate, i.e., PET or plastic #1, has been studied because it is recycled at relatively high rates in the U.S. as compared to other plastics. A material flow analysis is described for PET resin showing materials collected, reclaimed for flake, and converted into items with recycled content. Imports/exports, reclaimer residue, and disposal with mismanaged waste are all shown for U.S. flows of PET. Barriers to recycling PET exist in the collecting, sorting, reclaiming, and converting steps, and this article describes them, offers some solutions, and suggests some research that chemists and engineers could focus on to improve the systems. This effort also models sorting at material recovery facilities (MRF) and reclaimers, with detailed descriptions of the material streams involved, to characterize the resource use and emissions from these operations that are key processes in the recycling system. Example results include greenhouse gas intensities of 8.58 kg CO Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest. |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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