Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, mechanically recycled

This process represents resin-specific environmental burdens associated with the production of secondary plastic pellets from post-consumer plastic scrap and used plastic products or packaging. The process includes a conservative estimate of 100 miles of transport of the waste plastic from location of discard (“curbside”), through locations of collection and to the recycling center. Within the recycling facility, washing, separation, granulation and pelletizing are modeled. This model applies mass allocation for the separation and cleaning of the mixed waste plastic, such that all plastics (PET, polypropylene, polystyrene), despite differing ease of separation, share the burdens of separation equally. The energy required for pelletization and compounding of the final plastic is specific to the polymer type, dependent on the material properties (specific heat and enthalpy of fusion) of the resin.