Plastic is a lightweight, inexpensive and durable material, which is often used in a wide range of applications and in the manufacture of all kinds of products. This is why its production has exploded in recent years.
Their well-defined and well-designed characteristics make our daily lives easier, and they are key to society as they form part of important sectors such as food, education, mobility and healthcare. Its versatility and functionality make it clear that it is impossible to do without it. However, its high level of production and subsequent disposal entails major environmental problems.
Plastic, a mass product
Much of the plastic produced annually is used to make disposable packaging products or short-lived items. Its use is therefore not sustainable, as significant amounts of plastic accumulate in landfills and in natural environments in different parts of the world.
However, it is essential to apply the concept of circular economy so that this basic material can be reused at the end of the useful life of the product of which it was a part. Certainly, some materials are not recyclable, but most plastics are. The circular economy is therefore the solution to drastically reduce the amount of waste dumped into the environment. Furthermore, with recycled plastic we are protecting a very valuable resource such as crude oil.
In short, plastic waste has increased enormously and knowing how to manage it properly has become an imminent necessity. Consumerism affects the ecology to unsuspected limits. In fact, accumulated waste not only depletes natural resources and damages the habitat, but also paralyses economic growth.
How to tackle the recycling problem
Plastic has become essential in all walks of life. Plastic containers or food packaging increase the shelf life of food, while plastic parts used in the automotive industry make vehicles lighter, thus reducing CO2 emissions.
Plastic provides better hygiene and safety in the medical sector, and its use also extends to the electronics sector with the mass production of products for housings, plugs, switches and so on. Thus, plastic is present in our homes and not only in the form of plastic bottles, but also in things that you cannot see with the naked eye, such as thermal insulation that reduces energy consumption.
There is no doubt that it offers many advantages, but what we must avoid is that this material ends up floating in the oceans or in landfills that are unreachable to the naked eye. The solution lies in systems for collecting, sorting and processing recycled plastic, which creates new opportunities for the industry. The use of these products requires less energy than freshly produced plastic materials.
Recycled plastic bottles are the most common example. A small percentage is turned back into bottles, although much of this material is used in the manufacture of other parts used in different applications such as those mentioned above. Many companies are also taking advantage of the public’s environmental awareness to advertise their products made from recycled plastic.
In order to clean, sort and transform used plastics into new recycled material, state-of-the-art technology is needed to ensure their optimum condition. This is the only way to obtain different ranges of chippings (tiny plastic particles) or to recycle polypropylene as many times as possible. This is where Alser, a specialist in the treatment of different polymers such as PP, comes in, whose mission as a final manager is to train other managers on how to treat plastic materials for quality recycling.
