By intelligent materials, we mean that the materials used in products can be infinitely recycled with the same quality after each cycle of recycling. Actually, intelligent materials are already being applied in areas such as the textile industry. A wide use of intelligent materials in all industries would lead to the boom of the recycling industry.
Completely chemically and physically separable materials should be the trend of composite materials and compound materials in the future. If the chemical and physical properties of the materials can be thoroughly identified through the usage of a chemical & physical fusion technology that combines the methods used in today’s pyrolysis and Result Technology AG processes, a great volume of valuable materials will be recycled on a consistent basis in the future.
Many of today’s materials, particularly plastic, are not biodegradable. What we mean by biodegradable is that no matter how long a material is buried in landfills, it will not decompose and become part of the environment. These types of materials cause tremendous environmental damages and usually require extensive chemical and mechanical processes to be recycled. In the future, manufactures should make more products with biodegradable materials in combination with intelligent and chemically separable materials. When the intelligent and chemically separable materials are identified and reused, the rest of the product, which are biodegradable, can be dissolved in landfills after a short period of time.
We predict that in the closer future (10-50 years), all the current recyclable materials will remain recyclable, while new materials (that are currently unrecyclable) will be added to the list of recyclable materials gradually as the recycling processes technology advances with time. We can expect more and more materials to be intelligent materials and biodegradable. Although composite and compound material recycling already exists today, we can expect more advances in the current technology and processes with eventually leading to the recycling of any material.
Theoretically, in the far future (+50 years), most (if not all) materials (whether they are composites, compounds, or single) on earth should be recyclable.
Another very contradictory view on the future of recycling is that it might not even exist. According to Ed Grenda, it is also possible that 50 years from now, recycling might not be needed since other forms of technologies would exist by then. To lear more about this possibility, please visit our section A Letter From Castle Island – An Expert's Opinion (last paragraph in that section).
Section I: Introduction
Section II: Present
Section III: Future (YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN THIS SECTION)
Complete Table of Contents
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