Fieid study on plastic recycling in alexandria city: case study in montazah district

ABSTRACT

Recycling is an important factor in helping to reduce the demand on resources and the amount of waste. This work aims to study the pathway of plastic wastes in domestic solid waste [DSW], estimation of the generation rates of DSW and its total plastic [TP] components, salvable plastic [SP], and finally optimizing the recycling of plastic. The DSW from 200 apartments from each level in motazah district were collected. The field survey included a visit to four plastic industrial enterprises. The processing units were studied from the time of receiving plastic wastes until prepared for marketing. Almost all the mean weights of DSW increase as the standard level increases. The generation rate DSW in all levels in winter was greater than that of summer. The annual generation rate of DSW is 427/g/c/day. During winter, the highest mean weights of TP and SP/c/day were recorded for high level. The generation rates of TP and SP in high and low levels in summer were greater than that in winter. In summer and winter, the middle level generated the highest percentage of TP and SP while the low level generated the least. The annual generation rates of TP and SP are 4.5 and 3.2 g/c/day. It has been found that SP and rejected plastics [RP] represent 72% and 28% of TP respectively. Polythylene [PE] and polystyrene [PS] represent 59.3% and 14.9% of TP. On the other hand, PE constitutes 77% of SP and PS represents 66.7% of RP. The highest percentage of PS in RP during summer was recorded for the low level and the least percentage was recorded for the high level. While during winter, the highest percentage was recorded for the low level and the middle level generated the least. Winter percentage of PE in SP and PS in RP are higher than that of summer. In summer and winter, the highest percentage of PE was recorded for the middle level. During the survey of the four industrial enterprises, it has been found that the current methods of processing recycled plastics include many environmental problems espicially air and waste water pollution and safety of workers which required correction. For optimization of plastic recycling, it has been recommended to implement minimization of plastic waste and/or recycling programs.