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Distributed Recycling of Post-Consumer Plastic Waste in Rural Areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2013

M. Kreiger ,
G. C. Anzalone ,
M. L. Mulder ,
A. Glover  and
J. M Pearce
M. Kreiger
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States.
G. C. Anzalone
Affiliation:
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States.
M. L. Mulder
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States.
A. Glover
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States.
J. M Pearce*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States.
*
*corresponding author: pearce@mtu.edu
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Abstract

Although the environmental benefits of recycling plastics are well established and most geographic locations within the U.S. offer some plastic recycling, recycling rates are often low. Low recycling rates are often observed in conventional centralized recycling plants due to the challenge of collection and transportation for high-volume low-weight polymers. The recycling rates decline further when low population density, rural and relatively isolated communities are investigated because of the distance to recycling centers makes recycling difficult and both economically and energetically inefficient. The recent development of a class of open source hardware tools (e.g. RecycleBots) able to convert post-consumer plastic waste to polymer filament for 3-D printing offer a means to increase recycling rates by enabling distributed recycling. In addition, to reducing the amount of plastic disposed of in landfills, distributed recycling may also provide low-income families a means to supplement their income with domestic production of small plastic goods. This study investigates the environmental impacts of polymer recycling. A life-cycle analysis (LCA) for centralized plastic recycling is compared to the implementation of distributed recycling in rural areas. Environmental impact of both recycling scenarios is quantified in terms of energy use per unit mass of recycled plastic. A sensitivity analysis is used to determine the environmental impacts of both systems as a function of distance to recycling centers. The results of this LCA study indicate that distributed recycling of HDPE for rural regions is energetically favorable to either using virgin resin or conventional recycling processes. This study indicates that the technical progress in solar photovoltaic devices, open-source 3-D printing and polymer filament extrusion have made distributed polymer recycling and upcycling technically viable.

Keywords

Recyclingpolymerenvironmentally benign
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1492: Symposium D/G – Materials for Sustainable Development—Challenges and Opportunities , 2013 , pp. 91 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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