Contents

#### **Preface XI**


X Contents


Preface

resources).

physics.

If the 20th century could be characterized by the rapid increase in the production and consumption of materials that helped improving the standards of living, then the 21st certainly has many elements to qualify as the century of recycling. Since the duration of life of a number of wastes is very small (roughly 40% have duration of life smaller than one month), there is a vast waste stream that reaches each year to the final recipients creating a serious environmental problem. The presently most common practice of handling such waste streams is to incinerate them with energy recovery or to use them for land-filling. Disposing of the waste to landfill is becoming undesirable due to legislation pressures, rising costs and the poor biodegradability of commonly used materials. Therefore, recycling seems to be the best solution. The major driving force in today's recycling project is not only to re-use the materials but also to produce secondary value-added products, reducing the consumption of natural resources and the amount of energy needed, while lowering CO2 emissions in the environment.

The word re-cycling comes from the Greek word '*κύκλος*' meaning cycle and is usually used to denote the involvement of materials in a continuous cycle from 'cradle' (resources) to 'grave' (disposal of waste) and back to 'cradle' (re-formation of

The purpose of this book is to present the state-of-the-art for the recycling methods of several materials, including polymers, as well as to propose potential uses of the recycled products. It targets professionals, recycling companies, as well as researchers, academics and graduate students in the fields of waste management and polymer recycling in addition to chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry and

This book comprises 16 chapters that have been prepared from the contribution of 50 co-authors from almost all around the world. There are contributions from Europe (Belarus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovakia), Asia (Iran, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey), America (Mexico) and Africa (Tunisia). The book chapters have been organized loosely in three subtopics. The first consisting of 7 chapters deals with a very 'hot' subject both from academic and industrial point of view, that of polymer recycling. The second, including 4 chapters, refers to the recycling of specific large-scale wastes, such as tires, pharmaceutical packaging and
