Losses and Emissions in Polypropylene Recycling from Household Packaging Waste

A recent Dutch study analyzed the recycling of post-consumer polypropylene (PP) packaging waste, focusing on material losses and emissions. The research replicated an industrial PP recycling process to measure losses at different stages and suggest improvements.

Key Findings:

• Overall Efficiency: The process achieved an 85% PP recovery rate.
• Main Loss Points: The highest material loss occurred in mechanical drying steps (6.6%) and wet grinding with friction washers (4%).
• Microplastic Emissions: About 3.9% of PP input turned into microplastics before wastewater treatment, with dissolved air flotation removing 97–99% of them.
• Airborne Emissions: 330 µg of PP per kg of input material was emitted into the air at the drying stage.

Suggested Improvements:

• Keeping wet grinder knives sharp to reduce flake breakage.
• Adjusting mechanical drying speed to cut microplastic generation from 4% to 1%.
• Enhancing wastewater treatment by using additional filtering techniques.
• Implementing air filtration in facilities to reduce airborne microplastics.

By optimizing these factors, PP recycling can become more efficient and environmentally friendly.

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