Energy recovery from thermoplastic waste sites

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:124515

Townsend, R P ^[1]

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1. PLASTICresin Separation Specialists, Inc., Anderson, SC (United States)

There are an estimated 500 million pounds of landfilled thermoplastic waste in private industrial landfills in the southeastern US. How to efficiently and effectively reduce the number of existing industrial thermoplastic waste landfill sites and recover the energy associated with the manufacturing of the waste thermoplastic materials buried in these landfills is the problem addressed by this proposed project. The project addresses the problem in three ways: (1) how to clean up industrial landfills where one-type product is buried; (2) how to recover the energy from waste thermoplastics buried in these landfills; and (3) how innovative technology can effectively recycle the waste materials in these landfills. Nylon is the most energy consuming thermoplastic to manufacture. Nylon requires 90,400 BTUs of energy per pound to manufacture. Compared with all other thermoplastics, it takes an average of 2.8 times more energy to manufacture than any other plastic. The project will recover 200 million pounds of waste nylon buried for 30 years in privately owned industrial landfills. This recovery process demonstrates energy savings, utilization of innovative technology developed specifically for this purpose, effective recycling of recovered waste materials into commercially marketable products, and creation of jobs in an economically depressed area, as a case study will show.

• OSTI ID: 124515
• Report Number(s): CONF-940499--; ISBN 1-56590-014-6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
ENERGY RECOVERY
RECYCLING
SANITARY LANDFILLS
THERMOPLASTICS
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION