Enhancements of sustainable plastics manufacturing through the proposed technologies of materials recycling and collection

With the advancement of technologies and sustainability awareness, sustainable manufacturing has become a trend, and the transformation of manufacturing industries is inevitable. Among all, materials recycling process design has been a challenge affects sustainability. This study proposes a collection-recycling-manufacturing (CRM) model to support manufacturing transformation and envisions process simulation and improvements. In addition, this study aims to reduce materials waste, cost, transportation, energy and CO2 emissions. Moreover, it applies simulation techniques to optimise recycling facility management and produce a generic formula in the materials recycling facilities (MRF) topology design and transportation distance calculations. The procedure eventually enables predictions of operation through the optimisation of MRF number at the cost of transportation, energy consumption and CO2 emission. Furthermore, the methods strengthen the recycling process and fill the additive manufacturing (AM) gap before becoming industry mainstream. Overall, this study envisions materials recycling coverage by proposing optimized simulation techniques in the MRF topology design, and transportation distance, and takes full advantage of AM into CRM model integration to penetrate the market. Meanwhile, it identifies AM limitations supported by an enhancement plan to streamline the transformation and support sustainable manufacturing.