{"id":55708,"date":"2025-02-24T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=55708"},"modified":"2025-02-24T09:30:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T09:30:49","slug":"mechanical-recycling-a-key-solution-for-a-circular-plastics-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/mechanical-recycling-a-key-solution-for-a-circular-plastics-economy\/55708\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanical recycling: A key solution for a circular plastics economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martyn Tickner, Chief Advisor of Circular Solutions at the Alliance to End Plastic Waste<\/a> and Arun Rajamani, Managing Director and Partner of Boston Consulting Group<\/a> (BCG), discuss how mechanical recycling is transforming mixed plastic waste into valuable products, supporting a circular economy, and overcoming key recycling challenges.<\/h2>\n

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste<\/strong> has recently launched its third Solution Model Playbook, “Capturing Value Through Basic Mechanical Recycling of Mixed Plastic Waste<\/a>.”<\/em> This innovative guide explores how mechanical recycling can convert plastic waste into valuable resources, supporting both environmental sustainability and economic growth.<\/p>\n

Plastic waste is one of the most pressing environmental challenges today, with millions of tons ending up in landfills and oceans every year. While recycling offers a path toward sustainability, not all plastic waste is easy to process. Mechanical recycling \u2013 which involves sorting, cleaning, and reprocessing plastic into new materials \u2013 is a key solution.<\/p>\n

This interview explores how mechanical recycling can help address these challenges. Alliance and BCG experts in plastic waste management discuss its role in building a circular economy<\/a>, the technical and economic barriers that must be overcome, and how innovative recycling strategies are creating new opportunities for sustainability.<\/p>\n

Mixed plastic waste is notoriously difficult to recycle economically. Can you explain the key challenges and what makes mechanical recycling a viable solution in addressing these issues?<\/h3>\n

Martyn: <\/strong>Where plastic articles are easily collected as a clean, segregated stream \u2013 for example, PET beverage bottles and post-commercial back-of-retail store bulk packaging \u2013 or easily sorted \u2013 for example, HDPE milk and fruit juice jugs \u2013 mechanical recycling to meet recycled content targets and achieve high value, plastic-to-plastic solutions is technically and economically attractive.<\/p>\n

However, for mixed household waste, it is technically challenging and costly to sort plastic waste streams to achieve the required feedstock quality for recycling. Establishing the necessary collection systems and sorting infrastructure requires significant economic incentives such as mandated targets and Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, as well as building on years of experience in efficiently managing waste.<\/p>\n

In the absence of mature systems, regulations and financial frameworks, basic mechanical recycling is an excellent way to kickstart a recycling economy. It is, therefore, optimal for countries at an early stage of waste-management maturity, enabling them to adopt solutions that capture value from waste, encourage entrepreneurial development and begin to establish the structures and financial capabilities that are required to progress to more advanced solutions.<\/p>\n

Arun: <\/strong>Conventional closed-loop recycling \u2014 i.e. mechanical recycling into a product with similar properties to the original \u2014 requires a highly clean and single waste stream, such as single-polymer PET bottles or natural HDPE milk jugs. In contrast, mixed waste streams are often contaminated (with dirt, metal, paper, food, etc.), multilayered, and pigmented, making sorting into single polymer streams difficult and challenging to recycle.<\/p>\n

Mixed streams can undergo chemical recycling, but the technology has not yet been widely scaled. Another alternative is energy recovery from the mixed waste stream. However, its environmental benefits are lower than those of recycling, and it doesn’t support a circular economy.<\/p>\n

This is where open-loop (or basic) mechanical recycling comes in. It downcycles mixed waste streams into second-life products, such as outdoor benches and wall cladding panels, making it a viable solution that positively impacts the overall lifecycle assessment compared to incineration or landfill disposal.<\/p>\n

Can you share examples of how recycled mixed plastic waste is being transformed into valuable products like furniture and eco-aggregates and how this supports a circular economy?<\/h3>\n

Martyn: <\/strong>Examples of Alliance projects featured in the Playbook include:<\/p>\n