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This book shows the true and often-underestimated market potential of plastics recycling, with analysis from economic, ecological, and technical perspectives. It is aimed at both technical and non-technical readers, including decision makers in material suppliers, plastic product manufacturers, governmental agencies, educators, and anyone with a general interest in plastics recycling.

An overview of waste handling systems with a focus on the U.S. market is provided. Different methods of waste handling are compared from both economic and ecological perspectives.

Since plastic waste recycling is essential from an ecological point of view, common strategies and new approaches to both increase the recycling rate and improve recycling economically and technically are presented. This includes processing and material properties of recycled plastics.

Finally, a worldwide outlook of plastic recycling is provided with analysis of additional worldwide markets, encompassing highly developed, fast-developing, and less developed countries.

Bonus: all the data and calculations presented in the book are provided as downloadable spreadsheets for the reader´s own analysis and updates.

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Dr.-Ing. Natalie Rudolph is Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. She was previously Team Leader at the Fraunhofer Institute ICT, Germany, and Chief Engineer of the Polymer Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Raphael Kiesel, M.S. is a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Germany. He was previously a Research Assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chuanchom Aumnate, Ph.D. is Research Assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was previously a Research Assistant at the National Metal and Materials Technology Center, Thailand.

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