A review of plastics waste recycling and the flotation of plastics (vol 25, pg 85, 1999)

This paper summarizes the importance of plastic waste recycling and plastic waste separation. Based on an analysis of the physical and chemical charac teristics of plastics and plastic waste, the potentials and limitations of several technological processes are discussed. In addition, a review of the surface chemical aspects of plastic flotation is presented. It can be conc luded that the flotation of plastics is a fairly flexible technique and cou ld prove to be a useful process for the separation of mixtures of several d ifferent types of plastics. However, more research and development effort i s required before this technology can be introduced to industry. (C) 1999 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.