Pmma has been successfully depolymerized by contacting with molten lead resulting in mma with a purity more than 98.
How to recycle acrylic sheets.
The molten liquid is put in mold plates and then taken to a pressurized oven for a period of 12 hours making the acrylic plates again.
It is possible to form large pieces into useful objects in case they have not suffered crazing stress or cracking.
Acrylic sheets are certainly in high demand at the moment almost every shop you go into has huge clear plastic sheets around the tills and between you and other customers.
It is also claimed that acrylic scrap can be melted in a high temperature furnace after separation and grinding.
Indeed items like acrylic furniture parts are 100 recyclable and have a very long lifespan.
However there will come a time when the coronavirus dies down and we all go back to how things used to be.
It is possible to recover the monomer from pmma scrap by depolymerization.
Acrylic plastic is not recycled easily.
Production sheet scrap is sorted chopped melted and extruded into plastic pellets.
This normally involves subjecting the resin to pyrolysis.
Sheet plastic recycling acrylic or polycarbonate resin is a multi step process that requires very specialized equipment.
These plastic pellets are then sold to a plastic reprocessor who will use them in a specific manufacturing process such as sheet.