Evaluation of Plastic Waste Management in Thailand Using Material ...

5. Housewares: This kind of product is the tools which are always used in household.
The plastic materials which used to produce housewares products include PP, PET,
PC, PS, and PE. The most popular products consist of tupperware, carpets, as
bottles, shower heads dishes, cups, glasses, toothbrush, toys, chairs, tables, cloth
hangers, combs, trays, skylights, eye glasses, keys, door knobs, shelf, bed, etc.
6. Agriculture: There are many kinds of agriculture products which are produced
from different materials such as metals, glasses, and plastics, but the plastic
products for agriculture are consumed more than metal/glass products because it is
strong and durable as well as metal/glass materials. PVC and HDPE pipes are the
most popular products for agriculture. The other products for agriculture work are
LDPE film, PP woven sack, HDPE bottles, plant pot, gutter, and PC roof
7. Medical devices: Plastic products are also used in the hospital, so this plastic
products must be safe and not cause any harmful with patients/consumers. There
are many plastic materials that are used to produce the medical devices such as
PVC, HDPE, PET, etc. The medical plastic products include flexible tube, saline
bag, medicine bottle, syringe, gloves, film x-ray, and others.
8. Others: this group consists of stationery product, footwear, toys, sporting goods,
textile, and wearing apparels. This group has low production capacity compared to
other groups. All plastic materials are used to generate the products in this group,
and the example products include pen, pencil, document case, racquet, clasper,
bracelet, necklace, rings, doghouse, and others.
2.3 Plastic Waste Management
After consumption, plastic products become wastes, and plastic wastes are generated from
different sources such as household/community, industries, and agriculture. The first waste
collection and storage is done at the street bins or industrial waste store, and there may be
waste separation by consumers and waste pickers. After that, plastic wastes are collected
and transported by the waste collection truck. Then, plastic wastes are properly disposed by
incineration and landfilling, or they are recycled into materials, chemicals, and energy.
The plastic waste recycling is the one suitable method to manage wastes through the 3R
principle in order to reduce the amounts of plastic waste generation and disposal.
Moreover, the material recycling also makes the petroleum resource consumption
decreases because plastics are produces from petroleum which is the limited resource.
There are four categories of recycling are considered as following (Dev, 2007):
1. Primary Recycling: It can be define as recycling of uniform, uncontaminated
plastic waste produced from manufacturing plastic products. Only thermoplastics
can be directly reprocessed. It can be used alone or mixed with virgin materials at
various ratios. Primary recycling can be performed in the plant itself through small
re-processor standard units.
2. Secondary Recycling: It can be defined as recycling by separated series of systems
of operation for plastic materials such as post-consumer waste recovered from the
municipal wastes. Post-consumer wastes are obtained from returnable packages and
industrial wastes which cannot be used for primary recycling that are single wastes
or mixed wastes.
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