Plastic embossed film

Recycling of Plastic Films

Recycling means moving plastic from the agricultural waste stream back into the manufacturing process. To make recycling a reality, one must have a system or infrastructure in place. The following are the basic components of any such system:

·         Collecting

·         Sorting

·         Reprocessing

·         Marketing

Collecting

For recycling to be effective, one must collect a lot of material, from many farms. However, used plastic film is bulky and cannot be transported very effectively.To reduce transport cost for this bulky material the farmer can use a farm type small square baler that uses tine forks for cross feeding into the baling chamber to compact the plastic on the farm.

Feed the plastic into the baler by spreading the plastic into a windrow and driving the baler into the plastic. Make windrows approximately (1 m x 0.6 m deep) 3 feet by 2 feet high. Do not hand feed plastic into baler! This could cause serious injuries if feet or hands become tangled in the plastic. Large round balers can also be used, however the resulting size and shape of bale is too hard to handle. One may also have plastic compacted at a commercial compactor.The resulting compacted volume could be reduced to 15% of the original bulky volume

Sorting

Agricultural plastic film is mainly low density polyethylene. Sorting of this material is needed because there are different plastic products and additives. For example, plastic wrap is 0.5 to 1 mil thick and has tacifiers (glue) compared to tube plastic which is 4 to 15 mil thick with no tacifiers.

Reprocessing

Agricultural plastic films must be cleaned before being converted into pellets for film or formed into moulded products like plastic lumber and fence posts. Incoming plastics must be inspected for contamination and are accepted or rejected depending on the level of contamination. Contamination includes dirt, sand, stones, grease, vegetation, water, other types of plastic, glue, tape and ultraviolet (UV) light degradation. If the film has lost its flexibility and is crinkly, it has serious ultraviolet light damage. UV damage can severely limit the recyclability of agricultural plastic film.

Plastic films are then chopped in a grinder, washed to remove contaminates, then fed into an extruder where heat and pressure melt the plastics. The molten plastic is extruded into fine strands, then cooled and chopped into pellets. These pellets are used by manufacturers to make new plastic film products.Some plastic film is chopped then melted and formed directly into moulded products.

Marketing

Recycled Film

For agriculture, plastic films could be recycled back into plastic film. This is the best since there is no need to develop a market for the recycled plastic.

Plastic Moulded Products

Here are several options for molded products such as; landscape timbers, fencing, planking for farm pens, roadside posts, benches, picnic tables and pallets.All these options require a marketing plan for selling the new products.