Advanced Recycling Technologies

Recycling the unrecyclable

Many plastic products, such as potato chip bags or polystyrene containers, are made from multiple layers and materials that cannot be easily recycled. The mechanical options to process them into useful applications are limited. We don’t need to resort to landfilling or incineration if we can find alternative methods to convert them back to clean and valuable feedstock. This is when we can use advanced recycling such as:

·        Chemical recycling

·        Pyrolysis

·        Depolymerization

·        Solvent-based technologies

·        Gasification

·        Hydrocracking

·        Waste-to-energy

·        Convert to aggregates / cement

Online tool to compare advanced recycling technologies

Following the Plastic Waste Free Islands project, we compared different ways to recycle plastic waste. Together with CE Delft, we developed Deplastify, a tool for governments to analyse waste and identify the most suitable technologies for specific geographics. Taking into account multiple island-specific parameters, including social, environmental, economic and policy factors, we established a score matrix comparing new technologies against current end-of-life processes (landfill).

Plastic on the islands

Islands are particularly vulnerable to the effects of plastic pollution, having to deal with plastic debris that washes ashore from other places and the plastic waste they generate themselves. Non-recyclable plastics are not currently dealt with by the solid waste management on the islands, and high volumes are piling up, causing severe environmental issues.

The vision of the Plastic Waste Free Islands project from the IUCN, funded by Norad, is to create a Blueprint for Plastic Waste Free Islands, so that all solutions can be scaled up and rolled out to other islands across the globe. By utilising all the state-of-art technologies available, we can halt the flow of plastic into our ocean and ensure the future prosperity of these large ocean states.

Monthly recap

Stay up to date with our projects and other developments in the circular economy