There are more and more plastic waste all around the world. But it is little method to deal with waste plastic. However, molded plastic pallet is the better solution. You not only can dispose plastic waste, but also can build your own plastic pallet to gain more money.

Should we burn or bury waste plastic?

Should we burn waste plastic – or bury it?

Since China refused last month to accept any more foreign waste for recycling, the UK is facing a challenge.

How can it recycle more of its own waste? And should it bury or burn plastic waste that it can’t recycle? We’re trying to answer the second question. And it certainly divides opinions.

So what are the facts about plastic waste? Well, according to the HMRC’s UK trade information, about 800,000 tonnes of plastic waste was exported from the UK for recycling to other nations in 2014.

The UK itself was left with 1,244,774 tonnes of packaging sent either to landfill or incineration in 2016. The National Packaging Waste Database estimates that 1,015,226 tonnes of plastics packaging was recycled in 2016. Remember, this is packaging, not all plastic waste. So should we burn our hard-to-recycle waste, or bury it?

The case for burning

Plastic is made from oil and gas, and it creates a lot of heat when it’s burned. So at first sight it makes sense to harness that by burning it in an incinerator to make electricity. It’s even more efficient if the incinerator can capture the waste heat from the process and use it to warm offices and homes. Burning plastic this way currently substitutes in some places for burning dirty fossil fuels like oil or coal.

It strikes as a much better use of the calorific value of packaging than sending it to landfill. And it is better to recover energy from non-recyclable waste through (incineration), than send it to landfill. Besides, it is seen that overall greenhouse gas emissions from incineration are lower than from landfill. So it seems there’s a strong case for incineration. But it’s not quite that simple.

Because those statistics are based on the incineration of general waste including plastics – not of plastic waste alone. Much of our household waste in landfills does indeed create greenhouse gases that heat the world, unless they are captured as landfill gas. But this doesn’t apply to plastics, which are extremely stable. They don’t break down in landfill, so don’t emit greenhouse gases. And, in fact, there’s a strong case against incinerating plastics.

So what’s the case for burial?

Burning plastic creates harmful dioxins and if incinerators are inefficient, these leak into the environment. Modern incinerators are said to have largely solved this problem. But climate change is another consideration. Plastics burned in incinerators set up to generate only electricity create heat at 25% efficiency. While, this is much lower than the 55% efficiency for new gas-fired power stations.

When coal is phased out for generating electricity, incineration of unrecycled waste will be the most CO2-intensive form of generation. In environmental terms, it is generally better to bury plastic than to burn it. However, it is safer to contain that failure than to spread it through the atmosphere in the form of toxic gases. The question may seem rather academic. But it is highly pertinent for a government whose environment secretary is preparing a new plan for waste.

Is there other better solution?

Yes. There is. Better solution is recycling plastics waste into molded plastic pallet.

The process of molded plastic pallet production is very simple. And there are a lot of advantages of molded plastic pallets.

Advantages of molded plastic pallet

1. Plastic pallet structure is stable, not easy to deformation.
2. Raw materials of plastic pallet are polypropylene (PP) or high-density polyethylene, so it has excellent impact and bending performance.
3. Plastic pallet moisture, no mold, no worms, no decay, corrosion resistance.
4. Plastic pallet is easy to clean, hygienic and durable, and meets the requirements of health testing.
5. Plastic pallet is with long service life and is up to 8 — 10 years.
6. Plastic pallets salvage value is high, after the scrapped 1/3 salvage value, so the cost of bulk purchase is low.
7. Plastic pallet is with high security, no nail, no burr, no sharp corners, to protect labor safety.
8. Plastic pallet is beautiful and clean, which is the best choice to enhance the company’s warehousing image.

PalletMach is the leading manufacturer of plastic pallet machine, which can help you build your own compressed plastic pallet. If you want to get more information, please email us [email protected].