Plastic Recycling Strategies Used In Malaysia

| Tuesday, May 1, 2012
By Adam Woodham


Plastic recycling refers to the recovery of scrap and waste plastics, followed by reprocessing of the material in order to make other useful products. These products may be completely different compared to the original form of the plastic. It is a rapidly developing concept in Malaysia as well as other countries of the world due to growing global concerns regarding pollution.

Various methods can be employed to recycle plastic material. For instance, soft drink bottles are melted after which reprocessed to construct plastic furniture - tables and chair. Plastic once recycled does not resemble the original grade, and generally can't be recycled a second time.

Monomer recycling is a extensively employed process used to recycle plastic material in Malaysia. It solves numerous challenges that plastic recycling comes with. It's an elaborate process by which the plastic, a condensation polymer, is subjected to the exact reverse of the polymerization reaction which is utilized in its manufacture.

Plastic recycling by the above technique yields the same chemicals that were used to formulate the plastic initially. This chemical mixture may be further purified and used in the synthesis of entirely new polymeric chains. The brand new polymer is hence of the same type as the original.

Another process employed in Malaysia with regards to plastic recycling is that of thermal depolymerization. In this method, assorted polymers get converted into petroleum. This process is far less precise compared to monomer recycling, but is capable of accepting almost any and every type or mixture of polymers.

Thermal depolymerization can be employed to recycle plastic material of the thermoset type, like vulcanized rubber tires, biopolymers of feathers as well as other sorts of agricultural waste material. The petroleum produced, could be reprocessed to be used as fuel, or utilized to fabricate all new polymers.

One of the methods employed for plastic recycling that is becoming increasingly popular is that of heat compression. Although this method has not caught on in Malaysia, it is being used to recycle plastic material in the US, Japan and Australia.

In the heat compression method that is used for plastic recycling, all kinds of cleaned plastic, starting from plastic bags to industrial waste, could be recycled. Large rotating drums called tumblers take in loads of unsorted plastic where they're compressed at high temperatures. Since this method doesn't require totally different forms of plastic to be categorized, and can recycle all the assorted types, it's obviously advantageous. However, post melt types are subjected to high heat, and the process requires a considerable amount of energy as well.

In terms of plastic recycling in Malaysia, persons are becoming increasingly more conscious and concerned in regards to the necessity and the importance of the cause. However, there's still a long way to go so as to obtain a considerable reduction in the amount of plastic waste that's dumped carelessly in landfills and water bodies. Sadly, the system has not developed enough to ensure that all the plastic gets recycled. Source reduction is an urgent, immediate requirement in order to reduce pollution from plastics.




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