Recycling gains momentum

Environmental concerns created urgent demand for measures to ensure ecological balance and sustainability. Recycling, or the process of recovering scraps and reprocessing them into new useful products, has thus become an important issue that has tremendous impact on the manufacturing sector today. In the plastics industry, the ban on plastic bags and urgent need to properly discard plastic products such as PET bottles, are trends that have affected the directions of the industry. Recycling plastic materials requires special techniques and equipment due to the complex composition of polymers. Also, the use of additives and dyes has made it challenging, and expensive to recycle plastics materials. Sorting system for various plastic types The Society of Plastics Industry has developed the Plastic Identification Code (PIC) which serves as the basis for sorting plastics prior to recycling. In some countries, manufacturers of plastic products are required to use PIC labels on their products. Plastic materials are usually separated by colour and then shredded after which these undergo processes to remove impurities. The material is then melted and pelletised for processing into other products. "More than 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year" The easiest plastics to recycle are those made of PETE which are assigned the number 1. Once processed, these can be turned into soft drink, water and salad dressing bottles; peanut butter and jam jars, among others. Table 1 shows the PIC and the applications of recycled plastic materials. There is now a growing number of recycling processes -- among them monomer recycling method thermal depolymerisation, heat compression -- which are able to solve some of the challenges in reprocessing. Also, a number of companies and organisations have taken recycling a step further with new solutions that are expected to cost-efficiently transform waste into useful products. Recent developments in recycling Government officials and industry leaders in the Middle East region announced new waste management agendas during the 2nd Middle East Waste Summit held last May. Discussions and debates on the region's most pressing waste and recycling management issues were held, an indication of the rising awareness on the need to recycle and protect the environment. One presentation focused on the recycling process developed by UAE-based Shin-y for scrap tyres. An estimate of over 800 million scrap tyres is generated each year worldwide, and the total number of scrap tyres in stockpiles is expected to be in excess of 10 billion. Shin-y's Ecoil Sys process is pyrolysis based, and scrap tyres are heated in rotating kilns to result in 40-45% extracted oil, 30% carbon black, 12% steel braid, and 13% gas. The recovered oil from Ecoil Sys is of diesel grade. The carbon can be further treated through an incinerator to produce steam that could be used to generate power, or converted to solid fuel. The recovered steel is re-usable raw material, and the gas produced is re-used to heat the Ecoil Sys kilns. An estimate of over 800 million scrap tyres is generated each year worldwide The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) has an existing agreement with computer giant IBM to establish an international centre for advanced research on water desalination, energy and petrochemicals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The collaboration with IBM involves KACST scientists to embark on developing a recycling process for PET plastics, which is a common plastic used in containers for food, beverages and other liquids. Such effort forms part of IBM's studies to develop new approaches towards recycling plastics. Together with scientist from the Stanford University, the IBM team embarked on a research effort that could lead tNike Air Max