Potential of Recycled Plastics as Feedstock for the Production of Melt Blown Nonwoven Webs, 1990 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings

Plastic articles are made of sophisticated materials and designed to meet the specific, varied needs of modern society. Their generic properties of lightness, non-fouling, impermeability and mechanical resistance have made them ideal as new or replacement materials, but these same properties often mean their degradability is slight.

In the EEC plastic consumption has rocketed over the last 20 years and reached 20 million tonnes in 1989 (I), With consumption comes the problem of disposal of the used products. Plastic wastes account for, on average, 7% by weight of municipal waste but 25%, by volume. This in particular, has caused them to attract special attention in the waste management field.

At present very little of the plastic waste produced annually is recycled. Clearly, there are problems to overcome for example, the development of routes for collecting and separating waste plastic and the seeking of economic applications for the reclaimed material. The growing "green" movement will mean there is increasing pressure to find solutions to these problems.

The success of any recycling scheme pivots on an acceptable cost effective outlet for the recycled product. No matter how effective the recycling process is in providing a specified, uncontaminated product, if there is no outlet for it the scheme will fail.

Melt blown nonwoven technology which produces nonwoven webs directly from polymer feedstocks may offer a potential route for using a variety of recycled polymers.