What Are the Best Ways to Process Plastic?

Plastic waste is everywhere. How do we handle it right? Processing it well saves resources and helps the planet.

Good plastic processing uses steps like sorting, shredding, washing, and melting. This makes old plastic ready for new products. It needs the right machines for each step.

Processing plastic is more than just throwing it away. It is a full process. Let’s look at the key steps needed to do it well.

Sorting Plastic Waste?

Mixed plastic waste is useless. How do you make it useful? Sorting is the first big step.

Sorting plastic waste separates types like PET, HDPE, PP, and PVC. This makes sure each plastic type can be processed correctly. Machines or manual labor do this work.

Sorting is a very important step. Different plastics have different properties. You cannot melt PET plastic together with HDPE plastic easily. If you mix them, the final product will be low quality. Good sorting helps avoid this problem. It gets the right material ready for the next steps. If the sorting is not done well, the whole process after it will not work well either.

How Sorting Works

Sorting can be done by hand. Workers look at the plastic waste on a belt. They pick out different types and put them in separate bins. This method is good for plastic waste that is very mixed or dirty. It can also find things that machines might miss.
Machines can also sort plastic. These machines use special technology. They might use infrared sensors to tell what type of plastic it is. Then, air jets or small mechanical arms push the plastic into the correct stream.
Machines are much faster than people. They can handle very big amounts of plastic waste. But hand sorting is still useful for complex waste mixes.

Common Plastic Types to Sort

Here are some types of plastic often separated:

Plastic Type	Common Products	Recycling ID Code	Properties (Simple)
PET	Water bottles, Food trays	1	Clear, Strong, Light
HDPE	Milk jugs, Detergent bottles	2	Stiff, Durable, Chemical resistant
PVC	Pipes, Window frames	3	Rigid, Chemical resistant
LDPE	Plastic bags, Films	4	Flexible, Tough
PP	Yogurt cups, Bottle caps	5	Hard, Heat resistant
PS	Styrofoam cups, Plastic cutlery	6	Rigid, Brittle
Other	Mixed plastics	7	Varies a lot

Getting clean streams of one type of plastic is key. It makes shredding, washing, and melting much more effective. This first step really sets the stage for success.

Why Shredding is Key?

Big plastic pieces are hard to move or use. How do you break them down? Shredding is the answer here.

Shredding breaks large plastic items into smaller pieces. This makes plastic easier to handle, transport, and process further. It is a necessary step in many plastic recycling lines.

Shredding is one of the most important mechanical steps in plastic processing. We know this well because we make the machines that do this. Large plastic items like thick pipes, big drums, plastic crates, or large rolls of plastic film take up a lot of space. They are difficult to move around and hard to feed into machines that melt plastic. Shredders are designed to cut or tear these big items into smaller, more manageable sizes. This makes the material flow better through the rest of the processing line. It also makes it easier to store and transport the plastic waste.

Types of Shredders We Make for Plastic

We build different types of shredders that work well for various kinds of plastic:

• Single Shaft Shredders: These use one rotor with knives that cut against a fixed blade. They are good for many types of plastic and can give a more uniform output size. You can change the screen below the rotor to control the size of the final plastic pieces.
• Double Shaft Shredders: These have two shafts that turn in opposite directions. They have cutting blades that interlock. These are good for tearing apart tough or bulky materials like plastic film rolls or large plastic lumps. They offer high throughput.
• Four Shaft Shredders: These machines have two main shafts and two secondary shafts. They shred the plastic twice. This gives a smaller and more consistent output size. They are useful for getting a finer particle size or for mixed materials like electronic waste that contains plastic.

We can customize the knives on the shredder shafts. We can also choose the right screen size. This makes sure the output plastic pieces are exactly the right size for the next step in the process, like washing or granulation. For example, shredding thin plastic bottles might need a different knife setup than shredding thick plastic car bumpers. Good shredding also helps with washing. Smaller pieces can be cleaned better and faster. It is a step that prepares the plastic for melting or making pellets. Without good shredding, the rest of the line cannot work as it should. Zhengzhou Fude Machinery’s machines are designed to be efficient and use less energy while shredding plastic.

Cleaning and Separating Plastic?

Shredded plastic is often dirty. How do you get it clean? Washing and separating remove dirt and other materials.

Washing cleans shredded plastic by removing dirt, labels, and glue. Separation methods like float-sink tanks can separate different plastic types based on their weight in water.

After the plastic has been shredded, it usually needs a good cleaning. Plastic waste from collection points, especially from landfills or mixed waste streams, is often very dirty. It can have soil, dust, paper labels, glue from stickers, and other things mixed in. Washing is needed to remove these things. Clean plastic gives a much better final product when it is recycled. If the plastic is dirty, it can cause problems later. It can make the new plastic product weak or discolored. It can also damage the machines used for melting or forming the plastic.

Combining good washing with effective separation methods makes sure the plastic is not only clean but also pure. High purity means less mixing of different plastic types or other materials. This high purity is very important for making high-quality recycled plastic pellets that manufacturers want to buy. Our full processing lines are designed to include these washing and separation steps as needed by the customer.

Turning Processed Plastic into New Products?

You have clean, small plastic pieces. What happens next? The final steps make it usable again for manufacturing.

Clean, shredded plastic is often melted and formed into small pellets. These plastic pellets are then used by other companies to make brand new plastic products.

The main goal of all the plastic processing steps is to get the plastic ready to be made into new things. The plastic that has been sorted, shredded, cleaned, and separated is usually in the form of small pieces or flakes. For manufacturers to use this material easily, it needs to be in a standard form. This standard form is usually plastic pellets.

Why Pelletize Plastic?

Making pellets makes the processed plastic very easy to handle. Pellets flow smoothly, making them easy to store in silos, transport in bags or trucks, and feed into manufacturing machines. Factories that make new plastic products use these pellets. They put the pellets into machines like injection molding machines or blow molding machines. These machines melt the pellets again and shape them into new items like bottles, toys, car parts, or containers.
To make good pellets, the plastic flakes going into the extruder must be clean and the right type. If the flakes are dirty, the pellets will be poor quality. If different types of plastic are mixed, the pellets might not melt correctly or the final product could be weak. This is why the earlier steps of sorting, shredding, washing, and separation are so important. They make sure the plastic is clean and pure before it gets turned into pellets. Our machines, like our shredders and the conveyors that feed them, help prepare the plastic well for this final pelletizing step. We help customers build the lines that give high-quality output material. This system approach helps close the loop and supports the circular economy for plastics.

Customization is Key

Every customer who needs to process plastic has unique needs. The type of plastic they handle is different. The amount of plastic they process each hour is different. The final product they want to make from the plastic is different. These things mean that a standard line does not always work best. This is where our Fude Machinery ability to customize comes in. We work closely with the customer. We look at their specific plastic waste, their output needs, and their space. Then we design a specific processing line just for them. This includes choosing the right size and type of shredder. We also select the right conveyors to link everything. We provide the washing machines, drying machines, and other equipment needed. We offer a complete solution.

Getting the whole line from one supplier like us makes things much easier. The machines are designed to work together smoothly. Installation is simpler. Service and support are more direct. We provide full service. This includes designing the layout, building the machines, installing them, training the workers, and giving after-sales maintenance. This makes sure our B2B customers get a system that works efficiently and reliably for their plastic recycling business.

Processing plastic well takes several key steps working together. Sorting, shredding, washing, and getting it ready for reuse are vital. The right machines and a good system make recycling possible.