Essay On Recycling Of Plastic

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Introduction:
The word plastic originated from the Greek word plastikos, which means pertaining to molding. They are man-made synthetic polymers made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, chloride.64% of the total plastic accounts for Polythene. Polythene is a linear hydrocarbon polymer consists of a long chain of monomers of ethylene (C2H4). Polymers such as silk and rubber naturally exist in nature. They decay naturally and do not cause any pollution to the environment. But these man-made plastic materials are highly non-degradable and remain in the environment. This recalcitrant nature of polythene is due to the presence of hydrophobic carbon backbone and high molecular weight of the polymer. This is the reason behind major importance to rapid biodegradation of plastic in the waste management problem (Rodrigo and Ribes Greus 2002).

Increasing plastic waste disposal, landfilling and burning of plastics causes pollution thereby results in global warming (Swapnil K. Kale). Incineration burns off the plastic waste entirely but causes air pollution by releasing toxic gases like dioxins, carbon monoxide, and CO2 into the air. Recycling of plastics is an expensive procedure and the quality of the recycled products of plastic are lower than the …show more content…

Microbial enzymes induce the rate of biodegradation of LDPE very efficiently without causing any damage to the environment. The extracellular enzymes are too large and they cannot penetrate deeply into the polymer material, and therefore act only on the polymer surface, as a result, the biodegradation of plastics is generally a surface erosion process. The UV irradiation, thermal and chemical oxidation of polythene prior to its exposure to the biotic environment (with plastic degrading microbes) enhances the process of

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