Producing new plastic by advanced recycling of post-use plastic, instead of fossil-based production, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and increase the U.S. recycling rate. That’s according to research by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, which published its peer-reviewed Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study in the November 2023 issue of “Journal of Cleaner Production.”
According to Argonne, this is the first analysis of multiple U.S. facilities taking post-use plastic all the way to new plastics again. Specifically, the plastics studied were low-density and high-density polyethylene, and the recycling process used was pyrolysis, whereby plastics are heated to high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment. The main product is pyrolysis oil, a liquid mix of various compounds that can be an ingredient in new plastic. The oil can replace fossil ingredients like naphtha and gases to manufacture ethylene and propylene. They are two important monomers, or building blocks, for plastic production.
