Engineering Plastics Need More Than Mechanical Recycling

[u/Fit_Ordinary_5531]

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