Important announcement

Dear visitor,

Please note that this OpenCourseWare platform will be replaced at the end of 2026 by a new platform (under the same url ocw.tudelft.nl).

Courses and their contents that are currently available the platform will partly be migrated. URL’s for this content will change and content might be unavailable for some time. In addition, some courses will not be available anymore.

If you are linking to specific courses on this platform (for instance for your students), please take timely measures to avoid problems with access. Possible actions are:

  • Download the materials to your local platform (laptop, server)
  • For educators only (including TU Delft lecturers): Contact us at ocw@tudelft.nl and inform us what course you are using in what context (institute, program, period of use, number of students). We will research (in collaboration with the authors of the course) and decide if we will migrate the course, and if yes, can supply you with a new url.

Thank you.

Home Courses Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy Course materials Readings 2.2.2 Types of Plastic Recycling

2.2.2 Types of Plastic Recycling

Course subject(s) Module 2. Recycling of Packaging

Generally speaking, processes for plastics recycling can be divided into two categories: mechanical and chemical recycling.

Mechanical Recycling

Mechanical recycling usually consists of a size reduction (i.e. shredding or pulverising) of the plastics waste after which the material is sorted, washed, dried, extruded and often compounded. Compounding is the process of mixing or blending in other polymers, additives and fillers in order to create a plastic formulation that meets certain requirements.

Chemical Recycling

Chemical recycling involves chemically returning plastic waste to monomers in order to create new polymers. Their properties are equal to virgin plastics, but the required energy input is higher than for mechanically recycled plastics. In most cases, chemical recycling is not (yet) commercially viable.

Creative Commons License
Sustainable Packaging in a Circular Economy by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://online-learning.tudelft.nl/courses/sustainable-packaging-in-a-circular-economy/.
Back to top
[sg_popup id=6]