A Review of the options for the thermal treatment of plastics

All organic materials have energy embodied in them in the form of carbon. Theoretically
this energy can be captured and transformed into other useful forms. It is a well known
fact that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but merely transformed.
One of the most common methods of transforming energy from for example, a solid to
another form is thermal treatment. Through the various methods of thermal treatment one
may obtain heat, electricity or chemicals suitable for other applications.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a mixture of inorganic materials such as metals and
glass and organic materials ranging from food waste, to paper, to plastics. With the
exception of the inorganics all of the other materials have a calorific value that varies
from one material to another.