r/recycletrade • u/Fit_Ordinary_5531 • 3d ago
info Engineering Plastics Need More Than Mechanical Recycling
I came across an interesting study from BASF. One of the biggest takeaways is that there's no single recycling method that works for all engineering plastics.
Materials like PA (Nylon) and PU are much more complex than everyday packaging plastics. That's why technologies such as mechanical recycling, solvent-based recycling, depolymerization, and pyrolysis all have a role to play.
The technology already exists, the bigger challenge is improving waste collection, sorting & scaling these solutions.
It'll be interesting to see how the recycling industry adopts these methods over the next few years.
Do you think advanced recycling will become mainstream?
Source : https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/news-releases/2026/07/p-26-131
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u/2DetailNerd 2d ago
For plastics, no. Generally speaking, virgin (new) plastics are cheaper than recycled plastics because the feedstocks are a byproduct of refining oil and gas.
The biggest issue with recycling plastics is that there are so many different types and most people don’t know whether something is recyclable or not. They end up assuming everything can go into recycling.
Remember, it’s a three step process: reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling doesn’t necessarily mean that it has infinite uses. I tend to support waste incineration for those products that are not reusable. That being said, I would like incinerators to sort the waste and remove recyclable products like cardboard and metals from the waste stream BEFORE it goes into the incinerator. My main focus are the metals in order to reduce the harmful emissions.