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Chapter 17
15 Abstract
16 India has witnessed a substantial growth in the production of plastics and an
17 increased consumption of plastic. In the absence of adequate waste collection and
18 segregation process, the management of the waste created by discarded used plastics
19 items, especially ones used for packaging applications has become a challenging
20 task. This article provides an overview of the resource recovery from plastic waste
21 with consideration of integrated waste management (IWM), to evaluate the best
22 possible option for tackling waste in Indian circumstances.
1
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2 T. Banerjee et al.
1 1. Introduction
1 of waste is currently disposed of by open dumping.4 There are lacks of efficient waste
2 collection, segregation, and treatment facilities in most parts of India, even in the
3 most developed cities. Some commonly used methods by which the waste could be
4 managed are incineration, landfilling, and composting. However, all these methods
5 are practiced in unscientific manner and precautions regarding safe disposal of waste
6 residues are not taken care off. The basic properties that have helped plastics to be
7 most useful in common life are also cause of concern in environmental safeguard
8 perspectives. Waste plastic thrown on land mostly enter into municipal drainage
9 lines and chokes it resulting into floods as experienced in Mumbai, India in 1998.
10 Again, millions of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish are reported to be killed every
11 year by the ingestion of plastic bags. Mostly plastics affect marine wildlife either
12 by entangling creatures or by being eaten. Turtles are particularly badly affected
13 by plastic pollution, and all seven of the world’s turtle species are already either
14 endangered or threatened for a number of reasons.
15 Productive use of waste represents a means of mitigating some of the asso-
16 ciated problems of solid waste management. The concept of integrated solid waste
17 management (ISWM) is meant to provide a sustainable framework both for manu-
18 facturers and consumers.3 The ISWM is intended to guide decisions about the gener-
19 ation of wastes, recycling of materials and ultimate disposable of residues.5 It helps
20 to save and sustain natural resources that are not replenished, decreases environment
21 contamination, and serves to save and recycle energy production processes. Wastes
22 should be considered as potentially valuable resources merely awaiting appropriate
23 treatment and application.6 Unscientific disposal of plastic wastes triggers envi-
24 ronmental degradation due to their long biodegradation period, therefore, logical
25 methods for reduction of their negative effects should be application of ISWM
26 concept for its effective management with optimum recourse recovery.
4 T. Banerjee et al.
Figure 1. Comparative Study of Global Plastic Production (MT) with Consumption (KT) in India
and UK.
1 increases to 3.5 kg (2000).3 However, it is still far below than the global average
2 (18 kg).10 However, the projected estimates of per capita plastics consumption in
3 2021 may reach to a substantial figure of 10.9 kg,11 which seems a realistic consid-
4 ering the rapidity with which plastics are replacing its competitive materials.
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6 T. Banerjee et al.
1 Packaging represents the largest single sector of plastics use in the India. The
2 sector accounts for 42% of plastics consumption and plastic is the material of choice
3 in nearly half of all packaged goods.12 Apart from use in packaging, plastics are also
4 extensively used in the consumer products such as furniture and housewares, building
5 and construction, and in industrial sectors (Fig. 4). However, according to research
6 findings of National Plastic Waste Management Task Force,13 packaging constitutes
7 52% of the total India’s plastic consumption. This is line with consumption pattern of
8 other countries such as the USA and UK, where packaging exhibit maximum share
9 in total plastic consumption. After primary use of this portion of plastics, annually
10 0.93 MT of waste plastics are discarded along with the household waste.11 Although,
11 rag pickers recover a considerable portion of this waste, but considerable amount
12 of it either being soiled with the organic matter or not found appropriate for further
13 processing. In India, PE, PP, and PVC dominate the market mainly because of its
14 low cost, chemical structure, physical advantages, and high durability. Polyolefins
15 account for 60% of the total plastic consumption in India.10
16 Annually 1.3 MT of plastic waste is generated in India, which is 36% of total
17 India’s plastics consumption. Nearly, 42% of total generated plastic waste is recycled
18 in India by 20,000 recycling industries with total potential of 0.37 MT/annum.
19 According to NPWMTF (1997), in 2000–2001, more than 5,400 tonnes of plastics
March 27, 2012 11:24 9.75in x 6.5in b1272-ch17 Handbook of Environmental and Waste Management Vol. 2 1st Reading
1 waste being generated in India per day. Percentage of plastics in MSW has also
2 increased significantly from 0.7% in 1971 to 4% in 1995.14
3 Lack of biodegradability of commercial polymers, particularly used in packaging,
4 industry, and agriculture, focused public attention on a potentially huge environ-
5 mental accumulation and pollution problem that could persist for centuries. Disposal
6 of plastic wastes has potential harmful effects on the environment and, therefore, the
7 logical methods should be to recover maximum energy to maintain environmental
8 sustainability. ISWM is the concept to formulate decisions about the generation of
9 wastes, recycling of materials, and ultimate disposal of waste residues.
11 Solid waste treatment and disposal methods are burdened with problems. The col-
12 lection of solid waste and their transport to treatment facilities or to landfills accounts
13 for roughly three-fourth of the total cost of waste management. Health and hygienic
14 issues are also associated with transportation and, therefore, require special attention.
15 Landfill sites are mostly prone to soil and groundwater contamination, unless scien-
16 tifically managed. Recycling of waste materials also preferred in some aspects but
17 do possess technological constraints coupled with chances of future contaminations.
18 Incineration of waste materials has had problems with odor and air pollution and also
19 may not be found feasible due to intrinsic properties of the waste material. The pri-
20 ority of waste management policy is to reduce the quantity and toxicity of waste. The
21 concept of waste minimization has been also widely implemented in recent years.
22 The role of waste prevention can be suitably illustrated in Fig. 5. Together with waste
23 prevention, significant waste reduction can be achieved by inducing the concept of
24 changing product that should focus on pollution reduction and resource efficiency
25 and implementation of green design concept. Green design mainly concerns with the
26 reducing the environmental impacts associated with the collection and processing
27 of raw materials, manufacturing, product use, and disposal of the product (Fig. 6).
28 It is an important part of the waste and pollution prevention strategy. According
29 to the Office of Technology Assessment,15 major components of the green design
30 are waste prevention and better management of materials. Moreover, once a par-
31 ticular product reached to its end of life, the materials still possess some secondary
32 economic values and, therefore, additional savings can be made by reducing easy
33 disposal. Green design eases the process by which secondary raw material can be
34 retrieve from any product. Moreover, a critical stage in developing a product is the
35 selection of appropriate materials and, therefore, attempts should be made to select
36 such raw materials and technology that are economically feasible and also environ-
37 mentally sustainable. An important aspect of raw materials selection is the need to
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8 T. Banerjee et al.
1 reduce the toxicity of materials wherever possible. These toxic ingredients mostly
2 create enormous problems during the waste management stages when the product
3 loses its usability. Therefore, green design strategies help to reduce the amount of
4 toxicity associated with any compound without hampering its usefulness and quality.
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10 T. Banerjee et al.
1 product is used for the same or new purpose without undergoing a physical change.
2 Reusing, when possible, is preferable to recycling because the item does not need
3 to be reprocessed before it can be used again.
4 After waste prevention, the recovery of materials for recycling and composting is
5 given the highest priority. Recycling is somewhat different from reuse or remanufac-
6 turing and it defines the use of collected waste materials to be used as a raw material
7 for a new compound. It provides the opportunity to reclaim valuable resources and to
8 minimize the amount of waste placed in landfills. Depending upon the characteristics
9 of the plastics, it may be recycled or not, but plastic recycling process do contain
10 some technological constraints due to probable contamination and, therefore, special
11 attention is required. The practice of the three R’s (reduction, reuse, and recycle) fits
12 very well within the sustainable development concept. Resource recovery, inciner-
13 ation, and landfilling are the less preferred options of waste management hierarchy,
14 as they contradict the waste prevention concepts. However, there are potentials to
15 recover huge amount energy and resources from the MSW if proper segregation and
16 technology are available. Despite of having some advantages, the hierarchy of waste
17 management has some limitations:
18 1. It is of little significance when combinations of waste management options are
19 used for waste treatment.
20 2. It also does not consider the economic aspects of the waste management options
21 and, therefore, it has some restricted applicability in different scenario.
22 3. Hierarchy does not address the specific local situations. As example, incineration
23 of MSW in India is not economically feasible, as MSW mostly comprises the
24 biodegradable compounds, which possess lower calorific value.
25 Therefore, rather than relying on a waste reduction hierarchy, IWM suggests the
26 optimization of the system and also consider that all options can have a simultaneous
27 role to play. The IWM uses a combination of techniques and approaches to handle
28 targeted portions of the waste stream. It is important to realize that the portions of
29 the hierarchy interact with each other and that change on one level will impact or
30 influence another level. Moreover, using a range of waste management options in an
31 integrated system gives the flexibility to choose the best possible waste management
32 option suitable in particular situations.
98
100 Landfilled
89
Incineration
Other 78
80
68 66
62
Percentage
60
45
41
40
30
24 22
20 14 14 16
8 8 10
2 0 4
1
0
Australia Canada France Germany UK The USA India
countries
1 solid waste from residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources may
2 be considered as MSW; however, inherently, it does not include construction waste,
3 automobile bodies, municipal sludges, combustion ashes, and industrial process
4 waste even though waste might also be disposed to municipal landfills. MSW com-
5 promised a tiny fraction of all the generated waste, but requires most attention due
6 to its direct health impact. Historically, solid waste management was the most rudi-
7 mentary sort even in the most developed countries. Food wastes usually ended up
8 at a local dump, where open burning was the most common practices to sort out
9 the problems. For comparison, the percentages of waste generated that is landfilled,
10 incinerated, or treated by other means are illustrated in Fig. 8 for different coun-
11 tries. Countries with sparse population such as Australia and Canada tend to landfill
12 most of their generated MSW, whereas densely populated countries such as Japan
13 incinerate more. In present circumstances, scientific waste management in India
14 is a major problematic issue and about 90% of waste is currently disposed of by
15 open dumping or landfilling. However, landfills have also been widely unsuccessful
16 in India because of limited site availabilities. The population of the developing
17 countries is another factor that detrimentally impacts the function of landfill sites.
18 As the population keeps increasing, the garbage quantity also increases, which, in
19 turn, exhausts the landfill sites. Most recently, due to enhancement in consensus
20 of environmental conservation in general people, the technologies to manage the
21 waste have become more sophisticated. Gradual changes in the nature of wastes
22 trigger the concern for environmental conservation and also stimulate the necessity
23 for resource recovery. Recently, scientific landfills have replaced the open dumps,
24 incineration technologies have also been markedly improved with enhanced energy
25 efficiency and pollution control devices, and recycling of waste also become more
March 27, 2012 11:24 9.75in x 6.5in b1272-ch17 Handbook of Environmental and Waste Management Vol. 2 1st Reading
12 T. Banerjee et al.
Table 1. Decadal Growth of Per Capita and Total Urban MSW Generation in India.3,18
Figure 9. Application of IWM for Waste Management and Maximum Resource Recovery.
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14 T. Banerjee et al.
1 technologies. Finally, in 1991, a task force from Economic Commission for Europe
2 defined IWM as a “process of change in which the concept of waste management
3 is gradually broadened to eventually include the necessary control of gaseous,
4 liquid and solid material flow in the human environment.” In 1996, United Nations
5 Environment Programme (UNEP) defined IWM as a framework of reference for
6 designing and implementing new waste management and for analyzing and opti-
7 mizing existing system.
8 In this resource-depleted world, managing the waste and to fetch maximum
9 resource with minimum economic expenses is now the need that society has to
10 address. Solid waste management practices were initially developed to avoid the
11 adverse health impacts that were being caused by the increasing amounts of waste
12 being generated in the society. In past, solid waste management primarily includes
13 collection, land disposal, and incineration of household waste. Industrial waste dis-
14 posal did not receive much attention. Even though MSW is dwarfed in size and also
15 in environmental impacts than that of industrial wastes, but generation of industrial
16 waste is only due to virtue of the process of providing society with the materials that
17 ultimately end up in our trash.5 Therefore, consumption of less, not only saves the
18 wastes that would have ended up in the municipal waste stream, but also reduces
19 the energy, materials, and waste associated with providing those items. Therefore,
20 attention need to be directed not just at the management of consumers waste, but
21 at the complete set of the processes that results in the products our society seems
22 to demand.5 The Brundtland report clearly established that sustainable development
23 can only be achieved if society in general, and industry in particular, learned to
24 produce “more from less”; more goods and services from less of the world’s resources
25 (including energy), while generating less pollution and waste. Therefore, the goal
26 of sustainable solid waste management should be the recovery of more valuable
27 products from the waste with the use of less energy and simultaneously managing
28 more positive environmental impact in terms of human health and safety. In addition
29 to these, a sustainable solid waste management must inherently be more economi-
30 cally affordable and socially acceptable.
31 The decision regarding waste management should be flexible in terms of its
32 selection from different elements of waste management options, which will result in
33 minimum energy use, environmental impact, and landfill space at a cost affordable
34 to the community. This goal can be achieved by various means such as segregating
35 waste type, recycling of certain types of waste, and beneficial reuse of industrial
36 by-products. The inherent concepts of IWM can also be applied in a community
37 levels essentially consists of the following five steps:
6 Solid waste management all too often focuses almost entirely on what to do with a
7 given waste stream, with the key decision being whether to incinerate the waste or
8 bury it. The main goal is to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste being disposed.
9 According some beliefs, recycling is an additional financial burden on a community,
10 whereas land disposal based solely on the current tipping fee, which in most cases
11 is lower than recycling cost. However, landfills do possess limited space and often it
12 closed as unable to meet the new environmental regulations and also the total cost of
13 sitting future landfills is sometimes overlooked.Again in some instances, incinerators
14 were shut down due to its poor performances and as communities became more
15 agitated by the possible environmental effects of incineration. Recycling also possess
16 some constraints as entire municipal waste stream cannot be reduced to zero through
17 a waste recycling program. Therefore, using energy and material balance approach
18 at every stage in life cycle of a product can provide new insights into not only the
19 solid waste problem, but also the problems of air and water pollution.5
16 T. Banerjee et al.
18 T. Banerjee et al.
Table 3. Type of Plastic Resins, Recycling Potentials, and Use of Recycled Plastics.
1 from waste plastics, the recycling process including both chemical recycling and
2 incineration exhibit the highest efficiency and low-environmental repercussions. The
3 various approaches that have been proposed for recycling of waste plastics mainly
4 include:
5 • Primary recycling,
6 • Mechanical recycling, and
7 • Plastic recycling.
8 Primary recycling is the in-plant process of recycling of waste scraps materials.
9 Mechanical recycling involves the separation of plastic polymer from its asso-
10 ciated contaminants and further reprocessed through melting, shredding, and other
11 related processes. During mechanical recycling of plastic compounds the most
12 important aspect is the separation of different types of plastic resins according to
13 their chemical characteristics. Due to variation in melting points, at a definite tem-
14 perature, a batch of plastic resins may fully transformed and a different batch may
15 exhibit partial transformations. Therefore, the mechanical recycling of waste plastics
16 are mostly carried out with a single-polymer waste stream and in order to achieve
17 maximum efficiency and homogenous mechanical property of produced goods.
18 Moreover, mechanical recycling mostly operated at a temperature of 200–300◦ C,
19 which also results in the generation of various toxic gases.
20 The third type of plastic recycling process is chemical recycling or feedstock
21 recycling, which ultimately leads to complete or partial depolymerization of plastics.
22 Chemical or feedstock recycling also includes pyrolysis, hydrogenation, and gasi-
23 fication. Depending upon the need of secondary materials and the availability of
24 technology coupled with economic feasibility, any one method can be adopted
25 for recycling of waste plastic streams. Chemical recycling is mostly the complete
26 depolymerization of the associated monomers or can be partial degradation of in
27 order to produce secondary commercial products. Of the many alternative chemical
28 recycling processes, pyrolysis has received the most attention. Due to thermal insta-
29 bility of organic compounds, pyrolysis in an oxygen devoid condition results in the
30 combination of thermal cracking and condenzation reactions that ultimately generate
31 various gaseous, liquids, and solids fractions. Pyrolysis is often called as destructive
32 distillation, as it is an endothermic process in contrast to most combustion processes
33 that are exothermic. The major compounds that are generated through pyrolysis
34 depends on the organic characteristics of the compounds but mostly comprises of a
35 gas stream primarily with hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide,
36 a liquid fraction that consists of a tar oil stream containing mostly acetic acid,
37 acetone, and methanol and a char consisting almost pure carbon with some inert
38 materials. The effective temperature of pyrolysis for waste plastic streams varied
from 400–650◦ C or higher. However, the processes are basically divided into three
March 27, 2012 11:24 9.75in x 6.5in b1272-ch17 Handbook of Environmental and Waste Management Vol. 2 1st Reading
20 T. Banerjee et al.
1 classes as low, medium, and high temperature based on the required temperature
2 for complete or partial degradation of plastics. Products generated through chemical
3 recycling of plastics mostly depends on feed plastics, feeding rate, effective temper-
4 ature, residence time, and ultimately on efficiency of the reactor itself. However, the
5 generation of liquid compound enhanced at low temperature in contrast to gaseous
6 compounds at elevated temperature. According to the Achilias et al.,8 with defined
7 catalysts, oil and gaseous fractions were mostly recovered after chemical recycling
8 of HDPE, LDPE, and PP. Generated gaseous and oil fractions have the potential to
9 be reused as a feedstock in the petrochemical industries. Chemical recycling have
10 also been proved as an effective technology to produce fuel as effective as com-
11 mercial gasoline.22 Low temperature (400–500◦ C) chemical recycling of PE and
12 PP mostly results in the generation of high-calorific value gases and waxes coupled
13 with hydrocarbon mixture.8,22 The produced gaseous fractions possess high calorific
14 value and therefore, can be reused as feedstock and liquid fractions mainly consist
15 of linear olefin and paraffin mixture. The PP and PE at higher temperature (>700◦ C)
16 produce olefin mixture that has the potential to be reused for the production of
17 corresponding polyolefins.22,23 However, thermal cracking of HDPE and LDPE are
18 somewhat difficult due their low-thermal conductivity.24 Therefore, for these kinds
19 of plastic resins, chemical recycling at low temperature with effective catalysts are
20 found more appropriate due to reduced energy consumptions coupled with possible
21 formation of specific hydrocarbon compounds.8,25
22 In India, an approximately 4–5% of MSW are post-consumer plastics in com-
23 parison to 6–10% in the USA, Europe and other developed countries. Daily gen-
24 eration of post-consumer plastics varied from 4 to 5 thousand tons in India. The
25 percentage of plastic recycling in India is much higher than many of the developed
26 countries in the world. India recycled 47% of total plastic waste in contrast to China
27 (11%), the USA (3.5%), South Africa (15%), and UK (7%). India’s average waste
28 plastic recycling rate is also much higher than global average of 20%. There are
29 nearly 20 thousand industries in India in plastics recycling process with total daily
30 capacity of 1 KT. Although plastic recycling in India is mostly mechanized, but
31 generally operates at a low level of organization. There were over 2000 recycling
32 units in India along with 2,500 pelletizers. Easy availability of low-cost manpower
33 and exclusive market for the lower-quality products have helped in flourishing those
34 recycle industries in India.
1 The incompatibility between different types of plastic polymers during the recycling
2 is the major issue to be addressed. As example, the presence of a single PVC bottle
3 in a batch of PET type of plastic resins may spoil the whole batch and also have
4 potential to damage the equipment. Different melting point of various plastic com-
5 ponents can induce degradation and may develop poor mechanical characteristics.
6 Moreover, the toxic emissions may have significant impact on health and quality of
7 life. Economic consideration of recycling waste plastics should also be addressed in
8 Indian scenario. In order to compute economic efficiencies of recycling process, we
9 should count the costs of collection, material processing, market value of recycled
10 products, and reduced cost saved due to avoidance of landfill. Although in India,
11 recycled plastics have the good market value but public awareness is minimum on
12 health hazard associated with recycling process. Moreover, recycling is not always
13 the best waste management option, due to plastic’s inherent properties. During recy-
14 cling, plastic can only be reprocessed into inferior types of plastics and, therefore,
15 it limits the times it undergoes recycling. Plastics cannot be recycled forever and
16 that is why after being recycled for three to four times, they become unfit for further
17 reprocessing. Plastics recycling process is further complicated by the potential for
18 contamination by products that they once contained.5
19 However, considering the limited available resources of the world, waste pre-
20 vention and resource recovery should be the fundamental principle to sustainable
21 development. The cost incurred at recycling may be effectively reduced if costs of
22 waste collection and segregation are performed scientifically. In addition, on this part
23 of waste management, public participation can increase the efficiency of the whole
24 system to a great extent. Without the active participation of citizen, a recovery and
25 waste prevention-centric approach cannot be functional in order to effective waste
26 management. In India, fundamental problems for effective waste management are
27 the waste collection, separation, and transportation to the treatment facilities. Poor
28 performances in this aspect lead to fallout of the whole waste management system.
29 The lacks of involvement of public with unawareness of possible health impacts
30 make huge repercussions on the entire waste management system.
22 T. Banerjee et al.
24 T. Banerjee et al.
Heating values
Materials LHV (MJ/kg) DHV (MJ/kg) HHV (MJ/kg)
Note: HHV: higher heat value or gross heat value, LHV: lower heat value, and
DHV: dry heat value.
26 T. Banerjee et al.
1 exclusively, but it depends on the chemical nature of plastics itself. Moreover, while
2 the environmental and resource value of the plastic recycling is well established, the
3 economic constrains under current scenario and regulatory conditions are uncertain.
4 Therefore, it will be inadequate to compare the effectiveness recycling and incin-
5 eration process for solid plastic waste management but simultaneous application
6 of both technologies depending on the characteristics of the plastic material and
7 economic efficiency for a particular situation should be more viable.
28 T. Banerjee et al.
1 residues are produced and air emissions are not greater than fossil fuels. A cement
2 plant of annual 1 MT capacity have the potential to consume about 10–30 thousand
3 MT of plastics waste, which reveals the actual potential of this technology to be most
4 effective to sort out waste plastic disposal problems. In recent years, large fractions
5 of energy needed for the production of cement comes from the waste used as an
6 alternative fuels. Plastic wastes play a significant contribution to the replacement
7 of nonrenewable fossil fuels such as coal or petroleum. In several European coun-
8 tries, there is already growing competition between the cement industries and MSW
9 incinerators producing energy, both competing for the use of plastic waste as an
10 alternative fuels. However, the use of processed plastics as fuel for cement kilns is
11 often considered as in term of energy recovery.
12 The waste plastics have the potential to be reused as an alternative fuel in the
13 blast furnace and often considered as recycling of waste. For the smelting of iron ore
14 (FeO), traditionally, coal is used to fuel the furnace and to generate carbon monoxide
15 (CO) and heat. This reaction occurs when CO gas, released from the burning coal,
16 combines with the oxygen molecule from iron oxide to produce iron and carbon
17 dioxide (CO2 ). Recently, waste plastics have replaced substantial portion of coke
18 or pulverized coal for producing pig iron from iron ore. Waste plastics burnt in the
19 absence of sufficient oxygen similar to that of coal and produces CO that further
20 used as a reducing agent to convert iron ore to pig iron (Fe). Moreover, extreme tem-
21 perature (over 1,500◦ C) inside the blast furnace reduces the ash generation and any
22 possibilities of dioxin and HCl gas formation. However, eventually if any minute
23 amounts of dioxin or HCl do produce at blast furnace may readily neutralize by
24 limestone. However, it is essential to identify the optimal ratio of plastic to coal as
25 when plastic is added, hydrogen molecules from the plastic combine with oxygen
26 to produce water vapor (H2 O), iron and reduced amounts of CO2 . Water reacts
27 more aggressively than CO2 under high temperatures and causes other fuels in the
28 furnace to degrade. Moreover, the presence of PVC at waste plastic stream produces
29 chlorine gas that has the potential to corrode the furnace. In order to prevent the dif-
30 fusion of chlorine inside the blast furnace, coal tar and converter dust have excellent
31 implication.38
32 Except from the principles of waste prevention, the recycling of waste plastics has
33 become most promising and environmental friendly among the other means of IWM
34 methodologies. However, the recycling of waste plastics can be achieved by several
35 means depending on the characteristics of the plastic polymer and required product
36 itself and, therefore, can be classified into primary, secondary, tertiary, and qua-
37 ternary forms. Among these, the most efficient method in terms of environmental
38 conservation is feedstock or tertiary recycling that mainly useful to covert waste
39 polymers to original monomers or other valuable chemicals compounds. Feedstock
40 recycling principally converts waste plastics to their constituent monomers that are
March 27, 2012 11:24 9.75in x 6.5in b1272-ch17 Handbook of Environmental and Waste Management Vol. 2 1st Reading
1 then further processed either separately or with petroleum residues to derive conven-
2 tional fuel. With the presence of catalytic additives, long-chain plastic polymers split
3 to liquid, solid, and gaseous series of refined petrochemical products and particularly
4 of a liquid fraction very similar with that of gasoline.22 It has been previously dis-
5 cussed that at higher temperature due to thermal cracking of PE and PP, a mixture of
6 olefin with certain aromatic compounds and high-calorific value gases are achieved.
7 Chemical recycling of waste plastics viz. HDPE, LDPE, and PP with specific cata-
8 lysts generate aliphatic compounds that can be easily used as a raw material for the
9 production of refined fuels.8 However, coprocessing of petroleum residue with waste
10 plastics helped to enhance the hydrogen content of the final product and makes it
11 more useful. Therefore, apart from recycling only plastic polymer, researchers have
12 also studied coliquefaction of coal and waste polymers. On a laboratory scale exper-
13 iment, it was found feasible to convert waste plastics coupled with conventional coal
14 to liquid fuel at a relatively high temperature (400–450◦ C) and moderate to high
15 hydrogen pressure.39
16 6. Conclusion
17 In brief, this article emphasizes on the increasing trend of global as well as Indian
18 plastic production and consumption scenario. Moreover, with the concepts of ISWM,
19 plastic waste disposal problems are tried to sort out. Plastics are the integral part of the
20 society due to its extreme versatility and durability, light weight, excellent thermal
21 and electrical insulations, chemical resistance, and safety in regards to its competing
22 materials. However, coupled with all these properties and its relative inexpensiveness
23 have made these plastics much more prone to easy disposal and, therefore, causing
24 concern for environmental safeguard. When plastic products are used and discarded,
25 these plastics and additives are undesirable from an environmental view point. Tra-
26 ditional plastics are not biodegradable and are extremely difficult components for
27 landfilling for its volume and any future possibilities of groundwater and soil con-
28 taminations. Incineration is generally not found technically feasible in most of the
29 developing countries and also possess chances of air emission if not scientifically
30 managed. Recycling of waste plastics is the most attractive method in accordance
31 with the principles of sustainable development but can only be achieved for a limited
32 period as only inferior type of plastic can be produced through recycling with several
33 use restrictions.
34 All these emphasize that no one individual method is sufficient to deal effectively
35 with all materials in waste in an environmental sustainable way. In reality, if we
36 consider IWM principles, then it emphasizes that any waste management is built
37 up of many closely related and integrated processes. Therefore, instead of focusing
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30 T. Banerjee et al.
22 References
1 7. Business Line, (2002). Korean Tech. to Manage Plastics Pollution, New Delhi: Business
2 Line, The Hindu.
3 8. Achilias, D.S., Roupakias, C., Megalokonomos, P., Lappas, A.A., and Antonakou, E.V.
4 (2007). Chemical recycling of plastics wastes made from polyethylene (LDPE and
5 HDPE) and polypropylene (PP). Journal of Hazardous Materials 149: 536–542.
6 9. www.plastemart.com, (2009). Technical Articles & Reports on Plastic Industry
7 [available from www.plastemart.com, cited on 20th March].
8 10. Mutha, N.H., Patel, M., and Premnath, V. (2006). Plastics materials flow analysis for
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10 11. Gupta, S., Mohan, K., Prasad, R., Gupta, S., and Kansal, A. (1998). Solid waste man-
11 agement in India: Options and opportunities. Resources, Conservation and Recycling.
12 24: 137–154.
13 12. SGCCI, (2000). The Indian Plastic Industry, PlastIndia Foundation, Southern Gujarat
14 Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), India.
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