CONSUMER PLASTICS RECYCLED
By ANN TEOH
A BREAKTHROUGH has been made in the recycling of plastics in Malaysia.
A factory in Batu Caves is now recovering plastics from garbage dumps, and cleaning and converting them into high quality pellets for remoulding.
Plastic recycling may have gone on for years but the waste recycled was factory waste, and not consumer waste which goes into the dumps.
Recycling takes place in plastic factories which reuse their defective products, and there are also plastic recyclers who buy waste plastics from other plastic factories.
Unlike waste from garbage dumps, factory waste is uncontaminated and can be easily converted into clean recycled pellets.
"Although there are other recyclers, they do not have the cleaning and drying processes to produce high quality pellets which are converted into household products," said Plastic Pellet Industries Sdn Bhd director Nik Faizul Nik Hussain.
Nik Faizul said other recyclers have to be selective about the consumer plastics waste they use as they do not have the necessary processes to ensure high grade quality of their products.
He said his factory can produce transparent pellets that can be used to manufacture transparent plastic bags.
He said he gets his waste from scavengers from dumps in the Kiang Valley.
Since early this year, Plastic Pellet Industries has recovered 300 tonnes of a type of plastic known as "low density polyethylene".
Half the amount has been converted to clear pellets, which are used as components in the production of clear plastic bags.
He said a ratio of 70 percent recycled pellets mixed with 30 per cent virgin pellets is suitable for the manufacture of plastic bags.
Seminar
He said the price of recycled pellets can be as much as 50 per cent cheaper than that of virgin pellets, depending on the quality.
"The lower grade recycled plastics sometimes smell because not all the contaminants are removed."
But he said that this does not matter if they are going to be made into garbage bags.
Nik Faizul is a member of the Bumiputera Plastics Manufacturers Association of Malaysia which has set up a stall at Park Royal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, in conjunction with the National Seminar/Workshop on Education and Recycling of Solid Waste yesterday and today.
Association chairman Mejar (R) Abdul Rahman Ibrahim said they were helping out various local authorities like those of Taiping, Shah Main and Seremban develop their own recycling programmes.
"Although we are primarily concerned with plastic waste, we also provide information on the recycling of other wastes," he said.
Source : May 25 1993
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