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Plastic Recycling Technologies for Circular Economy Transition:A Comparative Review
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This review summarizes existing research on three ways to recycle plastic: mechanical, chemical, and biological. It found mechanical recycling is cheap but makes lower-quality plastic, chemical recycling makes better plastic but uses more energy and money, and biological recycling shows potential but works slowly.
The growing issue of plastic pollution calls for changing the traditional system of resource management through linear consumption into a circular economy. In this study, we synthesized and comparatively analyzed plastic recycling technologies to identify their roles, limitations, and implications for the transition toward a circular economy. Through a systematic qualitative review of academic literature and policy documents published during 2020-2025, this study examined mechanical, chemical, and biological technologies based on certain evaluation criteria, including efficiency, product quality, and economic aspects. The findings revealed that mechanical recycling was cost-effective yet lowered the quality of polymers, while chemical recycling provided quality plastics but required significant amounts of energy and investments and biological recycling looked promising yet had low speed of reactions.
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This comprehensive review evaluates mechanical and chemical recycling strategies for plastic waste, noting that mechanical recycling is widely used but limited by polymer degradation, while chemical recycling offers higher quality recovery but at greater energy and financial cost. The study highlights emerging technologies including AI-assisted sorting, nanotechnology, and biodegradable polymer development as promising approaches for building a more circular plastics economy.
Mechanical Recycling of Thermoplastics: A Review of Key Issues
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This review covers the key steps and challenges in mechanical recycling of thermoplastics, the most widely used industrial recycling method. Researchers discuss sorting technologies, decontamination processes, and how different types of plastics degrade during recycling. The study highlights strategies for improving the quality of recycled commodity plastics, engineering polymers, and bio-sourced materials to support the transition toward a circular economy.
Mechanical Recycling of Plastics
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This report reviewed current mechanical recycling technologies for plastics, examining efficiency, quality limitations, and prospects for increasing recycling rates to reduce the amount of plastic entering the environment as litter and microplastics.
Environmental impacts of post-consumer plastic wastes: Treatment technologies towards eco-sustainability and circular economy.
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This review covers treatment technologies for managing post-consumer plastic waste and reducing its environmental impact. Researchers compared mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, and energy recovery methods, assessing their technical feasibility, cost, and environmental outcomes. The review concludes that a combination of approaches is needed and that improving collection and sorting infrastructure is a prerequisite for any effective solution.
Plastic solid waste management strategies: An overview of implications on environment and health
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This review provides an overview of plastic solid waste management strategies, examining the environmental implications of different disposal pathways — landfill, incineration, recycling, and biological treatment — alongside emerging approaches including chemical recycling and biodegradable substitutes. The authors assess trade-offs between these strategies and identify policy frameworks that could accelerate the transition to more circular plastic management.
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