Non-recyclable polymeric materials in Waste Sorting Units in Porto Alegre/RS and metropolitan region

Abstract

According to the World Economic Forum (2020), around 32% of plastics (polymers) are inappropriately disposed in the environment, 40% in landfills, 14% are incinerated, 14% are sent for recycling, and only 2% of this fraction sent for recycling is recovered in durable products. These data demonstrate that even if potentially recyclable waste is sent to the Selective Collection, many are not recyclable due to the use of different types of polymeric materials with no market for recycling. This study aims to analyze which types of polymer packaging are currently sent via Selective Collection to Sorting Units, but which end up becoming waste and are sent for final disposal in landfills. For the development of the research, 32 types of polymeric material (plastics) were evaluated in order to identify whether or not they are commercialized in 37 Sorting Units in Porto Alegre and the Metropolitan Region. The results indicate that the resins with the lowest potential for recyclability were the types of polymeric resins: PET (1) of the tray type, PET (1) pigmented material, PP (5) of the bioriented polypropylene film type (BOPP), PS ( 6) single-use packaging such as cups, cutlery, plates, trays and coffee capsules, OTHERS (7) which are characterized by the mixture of more than one polymeric material, such as sachets, yerba mate packaging, coffee, animal feed, in addition to other types of materials such as acrylic.