recycledmaterial

Recycled material refers to material recovered from waste streams and processed for reuse in new products. It includes post-consumer materials, discarded by end users, and post-industrial materials, generated as manufacturing scrap. Recycled materials can displace virgin inputs in many sectors, helping to reduce resource extraction, energy use, and waste sent to landfills or incineration.

Common recycled materials include plastics such as PET, HDPE, and PP; metals like aluminum and steel; glass; and paper and cardboard. Some plastics and composite materials require specialized recycling technologies, and in some cases materials are downcycled into products of lower quality or functionality. Processing typically involves sorting, cleaning, and size reduction, followed by specific routes such as mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, or refining for metals and glass. Mechanical recycling usually melts plastics into pellets for new mouldings; chemical recycling breaks polymers back into basic monomers; metals are melted and refined; glass is processed into cullet for new glass products.

Applications cover a wide range of products, including packaging, construction materials (such as recycled aggregate and asphalt), automotive and electronics components, and textile fibers derived from recycled plastics like rPET. Recycled materials can lower environmental footprints by reducing virgin material demand, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, while supporting circular economy objectives.

Challenges include contamination, variability in material quality, and economic viability. Market demand, collection infrastructure, and regulatory frameworks influence recycling rates and the development of higher-grade recycled materials, as well as advances in chemical recycling and material certification.