Ak Inovex Mexico Develops New Plastic Recycling Technology That Works Without Water Megan Treacy - TreeHugger
go to original January 9, 2015

There's a reason that the three Rs go in this order: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. To truly reduce your environmental impact, recycling should be the last step after you've exhausted the other two options.

Let's be clear. Recycling is amazing. It allows the materials in otherwise one-use objects to go on to become something new and saves resources over sourcing new materials, but the unfortunate part of recycling is that it is water- and energy-intensive. Typically, plastic is washed with detergents and then ground into smaller pieces or beads. Those pieces then have to be dried in order to crystallize, which involves exposing it to 180 degree Celsius heat and then cooling it back down with water.

A new process developed by Ak Inovex in Mexico recycles plastics with zero water. It is able to form the plastic beads with no excessive temperatures either, meaning that the technology not only saves water, but uses half the energy of conventional recycling methods.

Read the rest at TreeHugger

Photo: Risager

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!