recycling
Mechanical and chemical recycling are two important processes for recycling plastics.
Mechanical recycling
In mechanical recycling, the collected plastic pipes are shredded, washed, melted and processed into regranulate. The regranulate can then be reused in suitable applications for the manufacture of new products.
In this process, foreign matter such as soil or small pieces of metal must be safely removed. Foreign plastics must also be recognized and removed before melting. Mechanical recycling is an established technology. The recyclers use various technologies and many years of experience to clean the source material.
Chemical recycling
In chemical recycling, the collected plastics are broken down into their chemical building blocks. The building blocks can be used for the production of new plastics or for other purposes (e.g. as wax, chemical industry). The advantage of chemical recycling is that it can also be used to recycle plastics for which mechanical recycling is not an option. On the one hand, problematic additives such as flame retardants can be removed and, on the other hand, cross-linked plastics such as PEX can be recycled.
Chemically recycled material is equivalent in quality to virgin material from fossil sources. This means that chemically recycled material can also be used in all plastic pipe applications.
Chemical recycling is currently only used selectively and has so far been a niche technology, but has long-term potential.
