The Current State of Waste Plastic and Waste Rubber Tasks for the Sustainable Society

Due to their excellent properties as industrial materials such as inexpensive and tough, plastics and rubber have been mass-produced with the rise of the petrochemical industry since the middle of the 20th century. In particular, the invention of plastic containers has enabled food to be easily stored at room temperature, and processed foods mass-produced in factories have changed our lifestyle significantly. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that a part of the plastics and rubber discarded in large quantities may leak into the environment and seriously affecting ecosystems and human health. Many technologies of mechanical recycling or feedstock recycling for plastic and rubber have been proposed. However, approximately 60% of waste plastics and waste rubber have been treated by energy recovery using combustion still now, because plastics unlike metals easily lose the advantage of mechanical recycling by physical or chemical deterioration or by contamination of impurity. The realization of a sustainable society based on resource recycling from global environmental conservation have been required. In this paper, the present status of recycle industry of waste plastic were described, the latest research regarding to microplastics was introduced, and future tasks of recycle industry were discussed.