Polymer Recycling
A section of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360).
Section Information
The environmental concern about the final fate of post-consumer polymers can be faced from two different points of view: recycling and biodegradable polymers. Recycling of polymers can be defined as activities able to recover matter and/or energy from post-consumer plastics. Different options can be selected in polymer recycling, from mechanical recycling to chemical recycling and energy recovery. Mechanical recycling allows obtaining secondary polymers through mechanical processes; chemical recycling allows monomers to be used to synthesize virgin polymers, mixtures of monomers, or low molecular weight gases for energy recovery. Finally, energy recovery directly obtains energy from the combustion of post-consumer plastics.Many processes are involved in all these different recycling operations: sorting, melt processing, new process, thermomechanical degradation, pyrolysis, etc.
The purpose of this Section is to coherently collect these studies and present them to a wide industrial and academic community.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:• Sorting
• Thermomechanical degradation
• Molten processing
• Additives and fillers
• Mixing and compatibilization
• New chemical process development
• Pyrolysis
• New combustion processes
