Breakthrough In Plastics Recycling - Above Ground Mining

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Source: TED 

Via Next World TV

The UN estimates the amount of electronic waste alone is 85 billion pounds per year and growing.

Over 90% of metals that end up at a recycling facility are in fact recycled because the process is much easier than plastics. By contrast, only 10% of plastics are recycled because they must be sorted into many different categories of density, color and type.

So most plastic is in fact, not at all recycled.

Mike Biddle, a plastics engineer, set out to find a solution. He set up a lab in his garage in Pittsburg, California, and began experimenting with complex-plastics recycling, borrowing ideas from such industries as mining and grain processing.

Since then, Biddle has developed a patented 30-step plastics recycling system that includes magnetically extracting metals, shredding the plastics, sorting them by polymer type and producing graded pellets to be reused in industry. This process takes less than one tenth of the energy required to make virgin plastic from crude oil.

His company’s recycling process is a breakthrough solution for closing the loop on plastics. He has new plants opening all over the world, and companies are eager to buy the recycled pellets.

-Bibi Farber