Mechanical vs Chemical Recycling: What's the Difference?

Mechanical recycling keeps plastic as plastic. Waste is sorted by type, washed, shredded into flakes, melted and extruded into pellets that manufacturers use to make new products.

It works best for clean, single-type plastics such as PET bottles and HDPE containers.

Chemical recycling breaks plastic down at the molecular level. Through processes like pyrolysis, mixed and contaminated plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled are converted into oil, gas and char.

Together, the two approaches capture far more of the waste stream than either could alone.