Plastic Waste and Recycling

Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel.

This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials.

• Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement
• Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation
• Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches

Academia: Researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. Industry: Scientists, R&D professionals and engineers, in the areas of plastics processing and products, plastics recycling

1. Introduction to plastic waste and recycling
Trevor M. Letcher

2. Production, use, and fate of synthetic polymers
Roland Geyer

3. The geography and geology of plastics: their environmental
distribution and fate
Sarah Gabbott, Sarah Key, Catherine Russell, Yasmin Yohan and
Jan Zalasiewicz

4. Biobased plastics
Stephan Kabasci

5. Biodegradable plastics
Maja Rujnic Havstad

6. Current industry position on plastic production and recycling
Edward Kosior and Jonathan Mitchell

7. Plastic waste in the terrestrial environment
Rachel Hurley, Alice Horton, Amy Lusher and Luca Nizzetto

8. The environmental impacts of plastic pollution
Natalie A. Welden

9. Microplastics: from origin to impacts
Natalie A. Welden and Amy Lusher

10. Textiles production and end-of-life management options
Andreas Bartl

11. Mechanical recycling of packaging waste
Alexander Feil and Thomas Pretz

12. Blast furnace feedstock and coke oven chemical feedstock
Seiji Nomura

13. Chemical routes for recyclingddissolving, catalytic, and
thermochemical technologies
Maija Pohjakallio and Tommi Vuorinen

14. Conversion of plastic waste to fuel
Mohanraj Chandran, Senthilkumar Tamilkolundu and
Chandrasekar Murugesan

15. The treatment of plastic in automobile shredder residue
Alfons Buekens and Trevor M. Letcher

16. Solutions to the plastic waste problem on land and in the
oceans
Edward Kosior and Irene Crescenzi

17. Plastics we cannot live without
Sharon George

18. Secondary plastic productsdexamples and market trends
Maija Pohjakallio

19. Plastic waste in a circular economy
John N. Hahladakis, Eleni Iacovidou and Spyridoula Gerassimidou

20. Ecological and health issues of plastic waste
Cayla R. Cook and Rolf U. Halden

21. Policy responses to plastic pollution in Asia: summary of a
regional gap analysis
Lewis Akenji, Magnus Bengtsson, Yasuhiko Hotta, Mizuki Kato and
Matthew Hengesbaugh

22. The challenge of plastic pollution in Nigeria
Emeka Dumbili and Lesley Henderson

23. Plastic waste in the United Kingdom
Libby Peake

24. European Union’s plastic strategy and an impact assessment
of the proposed directive on tackling single-use plastics items
Tim Elliott, Hannah Gillie and Alice Thomson