
Reduce, Reuse, Irradiate: IAEA Supports Partnerships in Asia and the Pacific to Recycle Plastic Waste
The IAEA, through the NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative, is supporting experts and decision makers in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to help create solutions that will reduce plastic waste.
A series of national stakeholder meetings between 2022 and 2024 has enabled countries’ experts to contact domestic companies working in polymer recycling. In 2024, those contacts matured into formal partnerships which are developing prototype recycling facilities that will eventually be scaled up for commercial operations.
In Indonesia, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is working with a wood-plastic composite producer to use recycled plastics and to replace the traditional chemical crosslinking process with radiation-induced crosslinking. This aims to enable large-scale production of improved plastic products using these recycled plastics without introducing toxic chemical residues.
In Malaysia, the Malaysian Nuclear Agency is working with two private companies to help reduce plastic pollution through recycling of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) products. Irradiation can be used to transform PTFE waste into plastic micropowder, an industrial additive that is used to enhance the chemical resistance and lubricity of oils, paints and more. Preliminary exercises have already demonstrated the scalability of this process, and plans are in place for developing a laboratory prototype to help validate the pilot-scale production of PTFE micropowder.
In the Philippines, the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) has formed a partnership with a private waste recycling company that aims to produce construction materials, including tiles, bricks, lumber and boards, using recycled plastics that have been irradiated to improve their strength, abrasion resistance and other mechanical properties. This initiative has the potential to assist in addressing both the country’s housing crisis and its plastic waste problem.
Further details are available at this link to the IAEA website: Reduce, Reuse, Irradiate: IAEA Supports Partnerships in Asia and the Pacific to Recycle Plastic Waste | IAEA →