Plastic bags and film wrap can be processed efficiently to supply end-use markets. While much attention in plastics recycling is focused on the recovery of bottles, containers, drums, pails, crates and vehicle battery casings, another facet is polyethylene film. A large potential market for recovered PE film is the plastic composite industry. According to the Composites Fabricators Association (Arlington, Virginia), three billion pounds of composite products are manufactured annually in the U.S. alone. Although the majority of these products typically use thermoset resins, recent developments have occurred in various processing technologies that incorporate thermoplastics. (Thermoplastics can be remelted and reformed; thermoset resins are molecularly stable and cannot be reformed.) As a result, new doors are opening up for a wide range of previously unconsidered plastics. One of the more promising of these is post-consumer polyethylene film.
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