A new breakthrough process could change how much plastic is recycled annually.
Research by scientists at the Warwick School of Engineering found that any kind of plastic can be broken down to its constituent elements once it is subjected to what they dubbed a "thermal shock", reports Food Production Daily.
Commenting on the project, the lead researcher Professor Baeyens said: "The material is put into a reactor at temperatures of between 400-500C, with or without steam injection, and the polymers are cracked back to their monomers."
This means they can be recycled from their raw elements rather than being used in energy-from-waste processes.
According to the research team, between 80 to 85 per cent of material used in PET or polystyrene can be recycled using the thermal shock system.
Professor Jan Baeyens added that the discovery could boost recycling rates and change the development of the burgeoning energy-from-waste sector.
Earlier in the year, an alliance was formed between between firms in the plastics recycling sector, called the Open Polymers Processors'Alliance.
The OPPA said that it had formed to tackle its concern that patents are being granted by the European patent office without any regard to their commercial value for the industry as a whole.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the recycling industry includes; elevators – bucket elevators – valves
