Abstract:
This study presents the findings from a study on the
consumption of recycled materials and recycling practices in the plastics
manufacturing industry and recycling companies in Malaysia. The findings
were obtained from a survey conducted in twenty plastic manufacturing
companies and detailed case studies in three recycling companies. The
survey conducted in the plastic manufacturing companies’ shows that
the consumption rate for poly-olefins (PP and PE) is the highest among
the resin types and the industrial sector that consumes the most plastic
materials is the electrical and electronics sector. The consumption of
recycled materials is high among the local manufacturing companies (80%)
which are largely due to cost savings; about 20% of these companies conducted
in-house recycling. The study has also shown that the medium scale industry
consumes the most recycled materials as compared to the large and small
scale industry. The rate of disposal for plastic materials in the local
industry is approximately 5%. The detailed case studies conducted in the
recycling companies have successfully identified the main processes involved
in plastic recycling namely manual sorting, cleaning, drying, meshing/pelletising
and packaging. These recycling companies obtained recycled materials from
various sources including industrial scrap, dumping sites, local producers
as well as imported sources. Pricing of recycled materials were based
on classification according to grade and quality of the recycled materials.
The study has reflected the extent of in-house recycling trends in the
local plastic manufacturing companies and their dependency on the supply
from the local recycling companies.
D.A. Wahab, A. Abidin and C.H. Azhari, 2007. Recycling Trends in the Plastics Manufacturing and Recycling Companies
in Malaysia. Journal of Applied Sciences, 7: 1030-1035.
Subscribe Today 
