Sustainability of the plastic recycling business. Plasmix: present hurdles and future opportunities

Closing the plastic recycling loop, while maintaining profitability was never easy at corporation level for several reasons. Although a challenge, complete recyclability of plastic materials must be achieved to avoid environmental collapse. The aim of the study has been to investigate upon the alternatives we currently can deploy and further develop to abate and eventually erase plastic waste. The approach has been to follow the circular economy framework of resource flow, implying that at the end of usable life, materials go back to being resources for further extraction of value instead of becoming waste. Although plastic recycling has been in place for a while, the inherent recyclability and quality of recycled products depends first and foremost on the input materials homogeneity. Recycling heterogeneous plastic waste (in Italy regarded as Plasmix, a mix of different plastic polymers) is a challenge yet to overcome, and this unrecyclable plastic share (Plasmix indeed) is still landfilled at best. Serving of the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas combined with thorough literature resources study and direct contacts with the biggest name in the Italian Plasmix recycling business, some valuable alternatives for Plasmix recycling emerged, many still in an early stage of development, a few applied at industrial stage. So far, the companies taken hereby as case studies, are capable of abating Plasmix volumes for about 70%, although a combination of recycling pathways and techniques could eventually lead to fully close the recycling loop for plastics, reaching full accomplishment of circular economy.