Recovering‌ ‌Plastic‌ ‌From‌ ‌E-Waste‌ ‌Middlesbrough‌ ‌

We all know that e-waste grows in bulk every year, putting a significant strain on our local landfills.

However, while some parts of electronics, such as glass or metals, are easily recyclable, another essential ingredient, plastics, presents a greater difficulty to the recycling sector.

This is because the polymer makeup of electronics plastics differs from that of recyclable objects like soda bottles and milk jugs, which are constructed of single polymers. Cellphone casings, for example, are composed of a more complicated polymer blend, and there are less safe and efficient recycling options for them.

Benefits of Recovering Materials From Electronic Waste

Plastics are employed in a wide range of industries, and 8 million metric tons of plastic waste are anticipated to enter the oceans each year. Plastic-containing waste is also known to damage the environment. Because of the dangerous substances in e-waste, we’ve known for a long time that it shouldn’t be disposed of in landfills. Another big boost to recycling operations is the availability of a newly upgraded technology that can successfully extract all plastics from e-waste.

While buying less devices is the simplest way to reduce e-waste, we all know that technology is becoming obsolete at a faster rate these days as manufacturers build new versions with more advanced capabilities.So, if you’re like millions of other people throughout the world who desire the latest models, remember to recycle your old devices rather than throwing them away. At IT Recycling we can help make this a reality for you.

Sorting, recycling, and marketing the plastics content of end-of-life equipment is time-consuming and costly. Few companies today want to handle the material, and even fewer domestic plastics reclaimers are interested in purchasing it. However, this is not the best thing to do because plastic waste is a major problem on its own. 

How Much Plastic Waste is Found in Electronic Waste?

By weight, e-waste contains around 21% plastic. Plastics used in electrical devices differ depending on the material qualities required for each part or assembly. Despite technological advances, the presence of harmful chemicals makes recycling difficult. The majority of plastic in electronic equipment is currently not designed for recovery or recycling. As a result, it ended up in landfills untreated.

Plastic waste is increasingly recognized as a threat, but the impact of discarded waste plastic from millions of electronic gadgets discarded around the world remains largely unexplored.  

However, not all is lost. In terms of recycling WEEE plastics, two basic options exist: mechanical recycling (recycling with little change to the polymer length) and chemical recycling (depolymerisation). The chemical recycling process involves breaking down polymers into low molecular weight compounds that can be used as fuels or as raw materials for the production of new polymers. As part of mechanical recycling, plastic components are recovered, pre-treated, shrunk, separated, and reprocessed; all of these activities can be carried out in a variety of ways.