Polyethylene Pipe Is

Recyclable

PPFA 2006

Polyethylene pipe being reground for recycling

Polyethylene (PE)
is a
thermoplastic material that is
used to produce plastic pipe
for water mains, service lines,
irrigation, geothermal ground
loops and other commercial
and industrial applications.
Since most thermoplastics can
be ground, melted and easily
reformed, in-house recycling of
plastic pipes is a common
industry practice. This series
of photos shows a typical
method to reprocess preconsumer PE pipe in-house. In
this case, regrind is added to
the feed hopper along with
virgin resin.
PPFA 2006

Finished PE Regrind

Pipes are ground down to a size suitable for feeding the

extrusion equipment.
PPFA 2006

A vacuum system transports the reground PE

PPFA 2006

Hopper feeding extruder line with reground material

PPFA 2006

Regrind PE entering pipe extruder

PPFA 2006

Plastic added to extruder exiting as new PE pipe

In this machine, the ground material is heated and pushed

through a die to produce a continuous length of PE pipe.
PPFA 2006

Finished PE pipe is printed (roll marked), spooled,

cut to size and ready for a final inspection

(All Photos courtesy of Silver-Line Plastics)

PPFA 2006