PLA itself can be recycled. However, there is currently no official collection of PLA post consumer waste from 3D printing or food packaging. In fact, the current plastic waste channels make it difficult to distinguish PLA from other polymers such as PET (water bottles), and the contamination of these materials with PLA affects recycling. Technically, PLA is therefore recyclable provided that the collection consists exclusively of PLA, without contamination by other plastics.
Indeed, currently only post industrial PLA scrap is beeing recycled at industrial scale. The PLA recycling can be mechanical and chemical. Through mechanical recycling can be obtained recycled PLA (flakes through grinding process or pellets through pelletizing), and through chemical recycling virgin PLA can be produced from PLA waste. Gianeco is engaged in mechanical recycling of PLA and other bioplastics.
The studies show that the production of lactic acid from chemical depolymerization of PLA is preferable, from an energy point of view, to the production of lactic acid by glucose fermentation. The study also shows that the environmental footprint of the analyzed process is larger than that of the PLA mechanical recycling.
