Recycling back to raw materials.

The Advanced Recycling Committee of the American Plastics Council (APC) is investigating and developing technologies to provide the industry with expanded options for commercializing new recycling methods. One such demonstration project involves a partnership between the APC and Conrad Industries, Inc., Centralia, Wash. The advanced recycling process converts plastics back into the raw materials from which they were made. This represents an exciting development in plastics recycling because it conserves natural resources, diverts materials from landfills, and produces marketable, useful products. The technology is similar to the processes used to recycle steel, aluminum, and glass.

Applying heat to plastics in the absence of oxygen produces liquid petroleum, carbon, and gas products. The process begins by feeding plastics into the system through an air lock to prevent air from entering the system. The plastics then move, via rotating paddles, through a tube heated to roughly...