A further barrier to the reclamation of obsolete plastic scrap has been the inadequate technology necessary to clean obsolete plastics and sort them into their types (e.g., polyethylene, PVC, polystyrene), colors, and densities. Research is being pursued in this area by the Bureau of Mines Solid Waste Research Program; and, while the results are promising, there appears to be little hope for widespread employment in the near future of the techniques that have been developed. 123

Perhaps the greatest stumbling block to the recycling of plastics is the unsatisfactory quality of end products into which they may be transformed. Use of clean waste plastic as a substitute for virgin materials in various refabrication processes (injection molding in particular) has not yielded an acceptable product. Molds injected with obsolete plastic waste fill incompletely and produce products with little, if any, value. 124

Among the more promising technology becoming available in the field of plastic recovery is that which facilitates the thermochemical recovery of hydrogen chloride gas (HCI) from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which comprises 20 percent of all plastics produced annualy. 125 PVC waste contains approximately 28-percent HCI, 9293 percent of which may be recovered easily.26 No thorough analysis of the costs of processing the PVC for thermochemical recovery of HCI is currently available. As a result, it is difficult, if not impossible, to develop a broad economic view of this recovery process. The Bureau of Mines, however, has calculated that per pound of HCI gas potentially produced, the cost of shipping PVC is less than half that of shipping hydrochloric acid. The Bureau found that railroad freight rates for 100-mile and 500-mile hauls were virtually identical for scrap and virgin PVC materials. 128

129

Ford Motor Company researchers have recently developed a process of polymer hydrolysis which has enabled them to recycle polyurethane foam, a major cushioning component in new cars. The use of the foam in the construction of automobiles has increased dramatically from 20 million pounds annually in 1966, to 200 million pounds in 1971; it has also become a correspondingly

Holman, J., et al., Processing the Plastics from Urban Refuse (Bureau of Mines Solid Waste Research Program Technical Progress Report 50, February 1972), p. 20.

124 Ibid., pp. 15-16.

125 Ibid., pp. 17-19.

126 Ibid., 27Ibid.,

12 Ibid.,

17.

p. 19.

19. (Based on rates from St. Louis to Rolla, Mo., and St. Louis to the southwestern United States via St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.)

Zimmer, Mary, "What's Happening to Junk Cars?", Ford Times, 65 (August 1972).

larger problem in the disposal of junk automobiles. Burning the foam is usually prohibited, and it does not lend itself to land fill operations. Details of the process and its economic viability have not yet been made public; accordingly, it is impossible to ascertain its economic significance at this point.

Within the near future, the best potential for utilization of obsolete plastic scrap appears to be the recovery of its latent energy by incineration followed by heat recovery. Plastics have the highest BTU value of any material in solid waste and have been successfully consumed by experimental incinerators fueled solely by municipal refuse (mixed solid waste), with power steam generators to produce electric power. 130

An estimated 2 percent (12,500 tons or 600 carloads) of plastic fabrication wastes were moved by rail in 1970." The remaining 98 percent was either recycled within the plant or transported by motor carriers to and from plastics scrap processors. 132 These data would appear to confirm the views of the plastics recycling industry that railroad freight operations and rates are of minimal importance in the recycling of plastics.

Darnay and Franklin, op. cit., p. 9-17.

ICC Bureau of Economics estimate. Tonnage carried by rail was estimated by applying the ratio (by weight) of plastic scrap to all rubber and plastic scrap carried in 1966 (derived from 1966 carload waybill statistics), to the tonnage of all plastic and rubber scrap transported by rail in 1970 (from 1970 freight commodity statistics). The calculation was as follows:

.21 x 59,726 tons = 12,495 tons. Total plastic fabrication wastes for 1970 were estimated on the following basis: only the thermoplastic type of plastic may be remelted and recycled. Of the 9.8 million tons of plastics produced in 1970, a minimum of 70 percent was thermoplastics. Thermoplastics fabrication wastes vary from 5 to 15 percent of production. Using the average fabrication waste estimate (10 percent), we found that a minimum of 7 percent (686,000 tons), of all plastics produced in 1970, are recyclable fabrication wastes. Thereby we arrived at our estimate of the percentage of fabrication wastes moved by rail in 1970 (12,495/686,000 - 1.82 percent).

From interview with James Holman, co-author of Processing the Plastic from Urban Refuse.

346 I.C.C.

346 I.C.C.

The data support the contention of the Society of the Plastics Industry that plastic scrap is recycled principally in-plant and that scrap processors play a relatively insignificant role in the recycling segment of the industry."" The practice of thermal recovery of HCI from PVC is not currently widespread in the industry, but, as we have noted, the freight rates for scrap and virgin PVC are reported to be virtually the same. Thus, no indications of current or future rate discrimination are present. 34 Ford's process for recycling polyurethane foam has not yet been employed on anything other than an experimental scale; specific information on transportation need and costs has not yet been gathered. Finally, the incineration of municipal wastes, including plastics, by power steam generating plants currently requires only short-haul motor carrier transportation of refuse, and there is little reason to believe that the transportation needs or modes involved will change within the near future.

On the basis of the 1-percent waybill samples for 1966 and 1969, the average revenue per ton-mile for plastic cellular expanded or foamed scrap or waste (STCC 4026110) fell from 6.0 cents in 1966, to 3.6 cents in 1969, while the number of sample shipments and their average weight and haul increased. The resulting average revenue per ton for these movements rose from $16.86 in 1966, to $21.50 in 1969. Nonexpanded synthetic plastic scrap (STCC 4026135) was found to have paid an average charge of $11.60 per ton for the four shipments sampled in 1966, while in 1969, the average revenue for 13 sampled waybills was $14.08. Because the sample sizes are relatively small, these average rates can only be considered illustrative.

As indicated above, plastic scrap produced during the manufacturing process is reused, but this occurs in the plant creating the waste and is not transported in interstate commerce. The industry has not established markets for municipal solid waste or manufacturing waste not used in the same plant.'" Recycling programs as described above are being developed, but scrap plastic is of uneven reliability and virgin raw materials are expensive. The NIPCC states that except possibly on a limited basis, plastic fractions obtainable

""'Letter to ICC from Martin W. Bercovici, attorney for the Society of the Plastics Industry, dated July 28, 1972.

135

Holman, et al., op. cit., p. 19.

Anthony R. Nollet, President, All-American Environmental Control Corporation, in a March 1, 1972, speech to the Plastic Waste Management Committee.

from the solid-waste stream do not yet appear to be truly subject to recycling at this time.

The plastics industry must attempt to develop practical methods of utlizing plastic found in municipal scrap. The first reported attempt at such a program, using polyethylene milk bottles collected from housewives in the manufacture of drainage tile was halted by Federal regulations requiring that only clean reworked material, generated from the manufacturer's own production may be used. Municipalities may dispose of scrap plastics by fusing them into solids and using this as paving blocks, traffic markers, benches, or parking barriers.

The range of thermoplastic scrap prices in 1969, was from $10 to $110 per ton, depending upon type and form. At the same time, the prices of virgin plastics of the same composition ranged between $225 and $400 per ton. Thus, the incentive to move scrap from many medium to low quality uses could be considered substantial. Obviously, the average charge of 3.6 cents per mile for a ton of expanded plastic scrap, or 5.8 cents per mile per ton for a nonexpanded synthetic, would exert differential economic pressure on scrap movements, depending upon whether the particular scrap was a polyethelene selling at from $10-20 per ton, a polystyrene selling at $40-60, or a polyvinylchloride with a price between $90-110. Equally clear is the fact that rate increases must be looked at in the light of these economic facts and the additional fact that less than 2 percent of all recycled scrap is estimated to move by rail.

346 I.C.C.