Advanced recycling is key to producing circular plastics. But what is mechanical-based, advanced plastic recycling and how does it work?

Advanced mechanical recycling is a revolutionary new approach that combines existing technologies to produce high-quality recycled plastic content. The process differs from standard mechanical recycling by including additional pre-sorting and purification steps. Enhanced plastic flake sorting ensures post-consumer plastic waste is sorted by polymer types and colors, enabling the high-purity secondary materials ready for extrusion.

Unlike chemical recycling or plastic pyrolysis, mechanical-based advanced recycling requires far less energy and has a smaller ecological footprint. Systemiq and The Pew Charitable Trusts acknowledged the role of mechanical recycling as a solution and called for doubling its capacity by 2040 in the “Breaking the Plastics Wave” report.

In 2021, TOMRA, Borealis, and Zimmermann opened a state-of-the-art plant for post-consumer plastic waste sorting and advanced mechanical recycling to process rigid and flexible plastic from household waste. Since then, advanced mechanical recycling processes have also been applied to recycle high impact polystyrene (HIPS) recovered from mixed plastic waste.

To learn even more about advanced mechanical recycling, visit our resource hub: circular-economy.tomra.com/resources/amr
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