The new technologies and economics have come to play an
important role in plastics recycling. As described in previous
section, plastic recycling principally refers to recovery, which is
divided into material recycling and energy recovery. Material
recycling is again divided into mechanical and feedstock recycling.
The choice between these methods will depend on the types of
plastics waste, the relative ease/difficulty in total or partial
segregation from other plastics and/or other waste materials,
ecological and cost aspect involved in the process. While
determining economic boundary conditions of plastics recycling,
it is necessary to make a distinction between: (i) mechanical
recycling to the same or similar applications, (ii) mechanical
recycling to new areas of applications, (iii) incineration and energy
recovery, cement kilns, incineration for power generation, (iv)
feedstock recycling to form different products like conversion to
monomer, fuel, reducing agent in blast furnace for the production
of iron, gasification and liquefaction