Wednesday 31 October 2012

The " Plastic Effect "- Fixing the Waste

So Sorry Friends for Being late...In Last Two Segments we've gone through the other two partshttp://youriota.blogspot.in/2012/10/the-plastic-effect-hazards-this-time
&
http://youriota.blogspot.in/2012/09/the-plastic-effect-know-your-plastic.html
To Close this Plastic Chapter we will Discuss its Last and Final Subject today...

                              How to Fix this Plastic Waste ??
Definitely answer is not going to be Very easy...because it is Not degradable like Organic Waste...
It is undegradable product...so fixing it Properly is a BIG challenge....
Today through this Post we will Discuss how We can manage this Plastic Waste in Proper Manner !!!

Let's start with some facts-

Of the options for managing plastic waste, re-use and waste minimisation are seen to have little impact on overall reduction compared with recycling and energy recovery.
Landfill is the other option for managing plastic waste and indeed is by far the most used; for instance in Western Europe in 2005, 53% of plastic was disposed of into landfill....


    Current Trends


  1. Landfill:
    disposal of plastic waste is dropping by 2% annually as available space is diminishing.
  2. Recycling:
    Technological developments are facilitating new ways of recycling plastic.Governments are legislating to promote it and Civil society is co-operating in recycling.
  3. Incineration:
    Uncontrolled incineration of plastics produce carcinogenic  
     poly-chlorinated-di-benzo-p-dioxins, a cancer causing chemical.it also causes emissions of toxic fumes.
We can Go for the Recycling and Incineration Methods because the land Fill Creates some poisonous Gases like Methane,CO & CO2...
So a Brief Description Of these methods can be Introduced...

  1. RECYCLING Of Plastic Waste:

    Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables. Typically a plastic is not recycled into the same type of plastic, and products made from recycled plastics are often not recyclable.
            Some challenges Which are faced Commonly during the Procedure,is 
    When compared to other materials like glass and metal, plastic polymers require greater processing (heat treating, thermal depolymerization and monomer recycling) to be recycled.
    Recycling a PET bottle still costs more than producing a new one, with the result that the recycling rate for PET bottles in Europe is around 25%. The situation is even worse for other plastics. Recycling rates for polystyrene are 2%.

    Mechanical Recycling

    'mechanical recycling recovers the plastic material for similar or lower-quality plastics'

    Feedstock Recycling

    'Feedstock recycling turns the plastic waste by means of chemical reactions into chemical raw materials or fuels
    1. Represents only 2% of total plastics recycling in Western Europe, for instance
    2. Recycling treatments have high investment costs
    3. Economics more favorable with larger volumes
    4. Requirement for plastic sorting
    5. Liquefaction
      A type of Feedstock recycling converts plastics into hydrocarbon mixtures that are useful as fuels via thermal and /or catalytic cracking commercialised by H.Smart Inc and Ozmotech technology being developed to solve the issue of residual PVC in the waste.
    6. Thermal processes
      Thermal cracking of these plastics can achieve a worthwhile yield of starting monomers:
      Polystyrene (PS)Poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA)Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
    7. Catalytic processes

                                             Did You Know??

      A first success in recycling of plastics is Vinyloop, a recycling process and an approach of the industry to separate PVC from other materials through a process of dissolution, filtration and separation of contaminations.


  2. INCINERATION of Plastics:Controlled high-temperature incineration, above 850C for two seconds performed with selective additional heating, breaks down toxic dioxins and furans from burning plastic, and is widely used in municipal solid waste incineration.Municipal solid waste incinerators also normally include flue gas treatments to reduce pollutants further. . The problem occurs as the heat content of the waste stream varies. Open-air burning of plastic occurs at lower temperatures, and normally releases such  fumes
" Open burning is not an environmental acceptable solution for any kind of waste," the technical working group emphasized. "Incineration under environmentally sound conditions with energy recovery should be the preferred option compared to landfilling or incineration without energy recovery.
                                             -GENEVA, Switzerland, January 23, 2002 (ENS) 

New Tracks:

A latest technology has come into being that helps in converting this plastic waste disposal into a good source of green fuel. Not only does this technology helps save our environment from waste accumulation but also helps us save lot of money... Let us find out how...

= >> Plastic Waste Disposal Producing Green Fuel

This method is doubly environmentally friendly as it will reduce the volume of plastic waste being disposed of in the landfill while producing green fuel without generating any green house gases.

                            The process of converting plastic waste into bio-fuel is quite simple. It is similar to how alcohol is made. If you heat plastic waste in non oxygen environment, it will melt, but will not burn. After it has melted, it will start boiling and eventually evaporate. You just need to put those vapours through a cooling pipe and when cooled the vapours will condense to a liquid and some of the vapours with shorter hydrocarbon lengths will remain as a gas. The exit of the cooling pipe is then going through a bubbler containing water to capture the last liquid forms of fuel and leave only gas that is then burned. If the cooling of the cooling tube is sufficient, then there will be no fuel in the bubbler, but if not, the water will capture all the remaining fuel that will float above the water and can be poured off the water. On the bottom of the cooling tube is a steel reservoir that collects all the liquid and it has a release valve on the bottom so that the liquid fuel can be poured out.

Meanwhile, several companies have begun operating plants that convert waste plastic to bio-fuel by using a similar process. Among them, Cynar which is head quartered in London but had its first plant operating in Portlaoise in Ireland, aims to install up to 30 plants throughout the British Isles. Similar plants are already in operation in Thailand and India.


So here this Plastic Effect Finishes with it's final topic...
Do Post your Comment and Suggestions.....Keep loving and Saving earth !!

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