(354c) Recycling Plastics in the U.S.: Polypropylene Flows and Recycling Processes

Plastic production is currently projected to grow beyond our capabilities to manage. Flows of postconsumer use plastics continue to increase, and so it is important to understand the management pathways for them. A previous study examined PET flows and processes [1]. This effort focuses on polypropylene (PP, Plastic #5), its material flows and recycling processes. The presentation will describe the PP items being collected, sorted, reclaimed, further processed, and converted into new recycled products. The analysis includes a variety of bales produced from sorting processes and the types of further processing that can prepare materials for downstream use. Among the processes studied are dissolution/precipitation and pyrolysis. Resource use and releases to the environment are described, along with the different products that can be made from these processes of recycled plastics.

[1] Smith, R.L., Takkellapati, S., and Riegerix, R.C. (2022), “Recycling of Plastics in the United States: Plastics Material Flows and Polyethylene Terephthalate Recycling Processes,” ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng., 10, 2084-2096. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06845

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.