Plastic waste is receiving well-deserved and unprecedented interest from a recycling perspective. Mechanical and, in particular chemical recycling, offer a proven way to provide closed-loop mechanisms for many materials. Polymer streams that are totally or primarily homogenous are obvious priority candidates for recycling. However, complex assemblies of polymers and systems make the challenge much more difficult, both technically and economically.<br/>This talk will present results on harder to recycle products such as paint, mattresses, and especially carpet. After 20 years of effort, a major recession and now the pandemic, carpet recycling in the United States, like many recycling operations, has reached a crisis point. Outside of California, carpet recycling has contracted. To better understand the challenges, we will focus in technologies, economics, products and markets which impact the recycling of such materials. In particular, efforts in California will be compared to those of other commodities in the state. Good progress has been achieved despite the pandemic after extensive capital investment in infrastructure and on-going large subsides paid. What have we learned and how can this be translated to other systems will also be discussed.

Recycling of hard to recycle materials

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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