Burn ‘Em All Or Sort ‘Em Out: Recycle vs. Incineration

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Burn Em All Or Sort Em OutRecycle vs.
Incineration
Heidi Beutel Tarsha Brown Reginald
Jacques Howard West Deborah Wierzchowski April
11, 2000
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Objective

• To determine if it is better to Recycle or
  Incinerate plastics made from synthetic polymers
• Statistics
• advantages
• disadvantages
• impact on environment
• which is more economical

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Why Recycle or Incinerate

• Question arises about what to do with plastic or
  post-consumer waste
• Waste accumulation has been a problem throughout
  history
• Growth in technology requires new materials
• Most consumer waste end up in landfill

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Definition of plastic

• The term plastic is used to describe commercial
  materials made from synthetic polymers
• poly (many) and mers (parts)
• not all polymers are plastics

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Two types of polymers

• Thermoplastic polymers
• Linearly structured with slight branching from
  the base units
• Formed upon heating
• Thermoset polymers
• Formed with irreversible cross-linkages of
  covalent bonds during polymerization, or
  post-polymerization treatments
• Cannot be heat softened

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Thermoplastic and Thermoset Wastes Per Sector
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Seven different types of plastic resins

• Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE)
• the most commonly used for soft drink bottles,
  waste containers, vegetable oil bottles
• High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
• also very common for film containers, vitamin
  bottles, milk jugs and butter tubs

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Continued

• Vinyl/Polyvinyl Chloride (V/PVC)
• used in the manufacture of food wraps, vegetable
  oil bottles, blister packages, clear health and
  beauty bottles
• Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
• used to make caps, netting, shrink wraps, garment
  bags and plastic bags

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Continued

• Polypropylene (PP)
• used to make butter tubs, yogurts containers,
  bottle tops, carpets and food wraps
• Polystyrene (PS)
• includes disposable cutlery
• Other includes either layered, mixed plastics or
  thermosets.

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Defining the numbers

• Numbers represent the ease of difficulty for each
  plastic to be recycled
• Scientist are working towards finding a way to
  recycle the higher number
• Only 50 of plastics get recycled
• Onset of debate over recycle vs. incineration

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Recycling

• Prior to 1989 plastic recycling limited to soft
  drink bottles
• Today plastic recycling has grown into a national
  network with curbside and drop-off collection
  programs
• Recycling and product manufacturers have high
  demand for greater post-consumer resins

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Growth in post-consumer plastic bottles
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Growth in plastic bottles recycling

• Plastic bottle recycling increased six-fold since
  1990
• manufacturers and consumers value plastics for
  their low cost, versatility and performance
  benefits
• consumer demand safety and convenience
• prefer to buy products in plastic bottles
• light weight and shatter resistant

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Comparing recycling rate of plastic bottles
between 1997-1998
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The Recycling process

• Sort and clean different plastic groups
• Melt plastic into bales
• Break bales up and grind into small flakes
• Wash, rinse and dry flakes in hot air
• Color/pigment may be added or maybe run through a
  pelletizer

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Other Forms of Recycling

• PE ? bean bag toys, lumber
• tires ?jogging track, roads, mousepads
• PETE ? jackets, sleeping bag filling, carpet,
  audio/video tapes

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Incineration

• Plastics with plasticizers and resins can not be
  efficiently or economically recycled
• cost and energy required to produce bottles can
  never be recovered
• Incineration plants are constructed with energy
  recovery in mind

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Incineration Process

• Waste is fed into combustion chamber
• Waste is incinerated
• Gases rise into a furnace section
• Heat from furnace is transferred to water pipes
• Heated water is sent through steam producing
  system

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Advantages of Incineration

• Waste Reduction
• plastics completely discarded
• Resource Conservation
• Energy produced used for energy needs

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Advantages of Recycling

• Waste Reduction
• reuse of plastic waste
• Resource Conservation
• use of raw materials reduced

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Conclusions

• Recycling
• save money
• use less raw materials
• no environmental emissions compared to
  incineration
• incineration - ash waste
• landfills - 10-30 years to decompose

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Questions?