GreatSunBro

How commercially viable is plastics recycling?

Recently when China tightened its waste standards it gave the impression that no one really wants it and even Japan with its extensive domestic recycling standards and culture export the waste in bulk instead of recycling to feed into their own industry, one that is utterly dependent on imports.

Cheap and abundant shale gas seems poised to end plastics recycling as they offer high quality feedstock.

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Thanks, I have wondering about it.

I am somewhat sceptical of the viability of recycling, because the important factors that impacts the company's operations, like quality of the waste input that impacts the costs, are largely outside their control.

For quality to improve, average people will have to be motivated to sort or even clean their waste. And if resource scarce and recycling conscious Japan has to export their waste to China rather than processing it on their own, it seems recycling is not viable without government intervention and incentives.