Chemical Recycling

Another way to recycle plastics, is chemically.

Here plastics are actually dissolved back into their original chemical components. These are then cleaned up and reused to make new plastics which, it is claimed, are as good as the original. At present it is a limited, expensive and problematic solution and can’t be applied to all plastics. Even so, it is already being employed by some companies.

Patagonia, for example, are using it in their Capalene base layer and fleeces. You can wear them them and then recycle these articles of clothing through their recycling program. It’s a very interesting scheme – read more about it here.

Other ways to recycle and reuse plastic trash here

Recycling and  waste plastic – a discussion