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The New Facility That Recycles Plastic With Steam

Mura Technology, a company focused on paving the way to solve the ever evolving problem of plastic pollution, has begun has construction on a commercial-scale plant to recycle all types of plastic using high-pressure steam. This will be the first such facility in the UK.

The Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution is a revolutionary advanced recycling process designed to tackle plastic that cannot currently be recycled and instead ends up polluting the natural environment. The plant can recycle all forms of plastic – including ‘unrecyclable’ products such as multi-layer, flexible plastics used in packaging – with no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled. This means it has the potential to eliminate single use plastic and make the raw ingredients for a circular plastics economy.

Image of plastic in a plastic recycling plant

These are a few of the things the plant is capable of -

· The plant will be able to process 80, 000 metric tons of plastic waste a year. The facility will start operating by the end of 2022. 

· Mura Technology, the company behind the facility, will use its own HydroPRS supercritical steam- where water is heated and pressurised to such a point that its properties become gas and a liquid at the same time. 

· The system is able to convert plastics into the oils and chemicals they were made from in about 25 minutes. This product can then be used to create new plastics with no limit to the number of times that it can be recycled, compared to only once or twice for most recycled objects currently. 

· This facility that will allow the UK to recycle plastic using steam could be a game changer in stemming the tide of plastic waste plaguing the planet. Globally, around 350 million tons of plastic is produced every year, which is estimated to rise to 600 million tons over the next 20 years, with only 14% of this collected for recycling, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation.

Article Credit -
Earth.org