Pollution of Plastic Waste and How to Handle Become An Energy Source| Waste Solution

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Almost everyone will certainly not regardless of the name of the plastic material in everyday activities. Yes, indeed plastics have become an important component in today's modern life and its role has replaced wood and metal considering the advantages it has, among others, are lightweight and strong, corrosion-resistant, transparent and easily dyed, as well as the nature of insulating is good enough.

The nature of the plastic material is what makes it difficult being replaced with other materials for various applications especially in everyday life ranging from food packaging, household appliances, toys, electronics up to component Automotive. The increased use of plastic materials resulted in an increase in the production of plastic waste from year to year. As the image of plastic consumption in Indonesia reached 10 kg per capita per year, so it can be predicted that in the amount of plastic waste generated. Read also Sorting Rubbish in An Effort to Cope with Solid Waste

As we know with that plastic is very difficult to break down in the soil, takes many years and this will pose its own problems in handling. The disposal in Landfills, trash is not a solution that is quite wise in this plastic waste management. The role of the scavenger in reducing a backlog of plastic garbage deserves appreciation though it cannot eliminate a hundred percent of plastic waste. 

Need for plastic waste management starting from the smallest i.e. household environment until large scale covering areas of the city are administered by the local city or County Government. To facilitate the management of plastic waste on a household scale, hence the need for an understanding of the types of plastics, its material content, to their impact on the environment so expect formed the right management.

Types of Plastic

Some types of plastic including 

1. Pet or PETE, or polyethylene terephthalate. Lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to make it. Its use is primarily on the bottle soft drink, place the food microwave resistant and others.
2. HDPE (high-density polyethylene) is more robust and is susceptible to corrosion, very little risk of the spread of chemicals when used as a food container, the container can be used for shampoos, detergents, trash bags. Easily recyclable. 
3. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) Plastic of this type has physical characteristics that are stable and have a resistance to chemicals, weather, electrical properties and flow. This most difficult material is recycled and most often we come across its use in plumbing and building construction. 
4. LDPE (low-density polyethylene) can be used for food containers and bottles mushier. 
5. PP (polypropylene) Plastic type has properties of resistance to chemicals except for chlorine, fuels, and xylene has good electrical insulation. This material is also resistant to boiling water and sterilization with steam heat. Its application on automotive components, food places, carpets, etc. 
6. PS (polystyrene), this type of rigidity and dimensional stability is good. Commonly used for disposable food containers, packaging, toys, medical equipment, etc.

Plastic waste as an energy source

Given the high energy content of the plastic material, then it is used as one of the potential sources of energy has a pretty good prospect in the future. From here can be had two advantages at once i.e. reduce waste problems and also produce energy that can be used to reduce the reliance on conventional sources of energy. Some technologies can be used to convert waste plastic into fuel include:

1. Conversion to solid fuel
Done with a counting of plastic waste and then making briquettes to later into fuel briquettes. This fuel can then be used for combustion in the furnace-furnace industry.

2. Conversion to liquid fuels
By using the principle of pyrolysis of waste plastic which is heated at a temperature of around 500ᵒC so converted will be turned into a gas and then it will happen. Once it is cooled again and can get liquid fuel equivalent to petrol and diesel cracking process.

3. Conversion to gas fuel
This can be done with plastic waste gasification technology where it is heated at very high temperatures reaching 900ᵒC with the principle of partial oxidation. So will the gas generated hydrocarbons that can be utilized for industrial use. Already fitting plastic waste is no longer a complicated problem and could even bring benefits by generating fuel. Now living how to encourage local authorities to apply existing technologies and supported by the whole community in a community-based waste management.

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