Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions

Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel.

This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials.

Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacementConsiders major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementationIncludes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches

1. Introduction to plastic waste and recycling Trevor M. Letcher

2. Production, use, and fate of synthetic polymers Roland Geyer

3. The geography and geology of plastics: their environmental distribution and fate Sarah Gabbott, Sarah Key, Catherine Russell, Yasmin Yohan and Jan Zalasiewicz

4. Biobased plastics Stephan Kabasci

5. Biodegradable plastics Maja Rujnic Havstad

6. Current industry position on plastic production and recycling Edward Kosior and Jonathan Mitchell

7. Plastic waste in the terrestrial environment Rachel Hurley, Alice Horton, Amy Lusher and Luca Nizzetto

8. The environmental impacts of plastic pollution Natalie A. Welden

9. Microplastics: from origin to impacts Natalie A. Welden and Amy Lusher

10. Textiles production and end-of-life management options Andreas Bartl

11. Mechanical recycling of packaging waste Alexander Feil and Thomas Pretz

12. Blast furnace feedstock and coke oven chemical feedstock Seiji Nomura

13. Chemical routes for recyclingddissolving, catalytic, and thermochemical technologies Maija Pohjakallio and Tommi Vuorinen

14. Conversion of plastic waste to fuel Mohanraj Chandran, Senthilkumar Tamilkolundu and Chandrasekar Murugesan

15. The treatment of plastic in automobile shredder residue Alfons Buekens and Trevor M. Letcher

16. Solutions to the plastic waste problem on land and in the oceans Edward Kosior and Irene Crescenzi

17. Plastics we cannot live without Sharon George

18. Secondary plastic productsdexamples and market trends Maija Pohjakallio

19. Plastic waste in a circular economy John N. Hahladakis, Eleni Iacovidou and Spyridoula Gerassimidou

20. Ecological and health issues of plastic waste Cayla R. Cook and Rolf U. Halden

21. Policy responses to plastic pollution in Asia: summary of a regional gap analysis Lewis Akenji, Magnus Bengtsson, Yasuhiko Hotta, Mizuki Kato and Matthew Hengesbaugh

22. The challenge of plastic pollution in Nigeria Emeka Dumbili and Lesley Henderson

23. Plastic waste in the United Kingdom Libby Peake

24. European Union’s plastic strategy and an impact assessment of the proposed directive on tackling single-use plastics items Tim Elliott, Hannah Gillie and Alice Thomson