Plastic Waste Management Practices

Plastics are non-biodegradable, engineered polymers made up of long chain hydrocarbons widely utilized for manufacturing of various utility items, packing materials, toys, shopping bags, electrical insulation, industrial, medical, agricultural, transportation and household products. Today, due to its inertness, non-breakability, chemical resistance, light weight, transparency, sterilizability, resistance to contaminants, opacity, low product loss during transportation and superior barrier properties, they have become a vital part of our day-to-day life, which has resulted into more plastic waste pollution without any proper scheme for plastic waste management leading to many health-related issues in society. Due to non-biodegradability of some kind of plastics, they will never be degraded and remain on earth for several thousand years. Therefore, various strategies are promoted by many developed nations for plastic recycling in order to combat their unfavourable effects on environment. Moreover, recycled plastic is more dangerous in comparison to virgin products due to mixing of additives, stabilizers and flame retardants that are added subsequently. This chapter gives a detailed overview of various techniques, both conventional and new or modern technologies, which are utilized for plastic waste management.