{"id":4004,"date":"2026-05-12T01:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kitech-recycling.com\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2026-05-12T01:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:30:42","slug":"ocean-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kitech-recycling.com\/es\/blog\/ocean-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Reciclaje oce\u00e1nico: c\u00f3mo el pl\u00e1stico pasa del mar al pellet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ocean recycling refers to collecting plastic before it enters the ocean (by intercepting it on the coast, placing barriers in the rivers, or removing plastics from the ocean with clean-up operations) and transforming it into re-usable pellets at a pelletizer \u2013 via a shredding, washing, drying, and pelletizing process. Much of what companies sell as “ocean plastic” is in fact ocean bound: the kind of plastic that is collected from the coast within 50 kilometres of the coast-line (or about \u00b31 miles), and doesn’t have a formal waste management system in place. It is important to understand the distinction here, because this is what your supply chain can and cannot provide\u2014along with in what grade.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Quick Specs: Ocean Recycling at a Glance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Annual ocean leakage (UNEP, 2025)<\/td>\n19\u20132\u00b3 million tonnes\/yr<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Global plastic recycling rate<\/td>\n~9\u201310% (OECD)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coastal-source share of marine litter<\/td>\n~80% (OBP definition)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ocean Cleanup 2025 collection<\/td>\n~25 million kg removed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Recycling stages (sea \u2192 pellet)<\/td>\n4 (shred \u2192 wash \u2192 dry \u2192 pelletize)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Typical recycled pellet pricing<\/td>\nPET flakes $0.30\u20130.60\/lb \u00b7 HDPE $0.40\u20130.70\/lb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

What Is Ocean Recycling?<\/h2>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

Ocean recycling is a shared term for two related things: (1) the collection of plastic that has already entered the ocean, on rivers or along coastlines, and (2) the industrial recycling that converts recovered plastic into granules for use in manufacturing. The vast majority of the “ocean plastic” currently being used in consumer applications is actually an example of something even more accurately termed ocean-bound plastic (OBP) a stream of plastic pollution that is at risk of entering the marine environment, and has been intercepted before it makes it there, although real ocean-recovered plastic\u2014collected from the open ocean using methods such as The Ocean Cleanup’s offshore plastic collection arrays\u2014does occur, but in tiny quantities relative to the OBP stream.<\/p>\n

Both routes lead to the same end process. Post collection it will need separating from contaminants such as salt, sand and biofouling, washing, drying and pelleting (this is the same process as normal post consumption reprocessing but with a focus on removing contaminants and accepting a lower grade output relative to virgin and land sourced recycled resin).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How Much Plastic Actually Reaches the Ocean \u2014 and Where It Comes From<\/h2>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

You will notice “8 million tons”, “11 million tonnes” and “14 million tons”are well banded across articles on ocean plastic – and they are sometimes banded within the same article. None of them is in argument, exactly. But they are different scales from different years.<\/p>\n

Latest authoritative studies have put the annual leakage at 19 – 23 million tonnes, the picture shifts according to whether you include rivers, lakes and margins or just open ocean.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Source (year)<\/th>\nFigure<\/th>\nScope<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
UNEP (2025)<\/a><\/td>\n19\u201323 Mt\/yr<\/td>\nAquatic ecosystems (lakes, rivers, seas)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IUCN (2024)<\/a><\/td>\n20 Mt\/yr<\/td>\nAll natural environments<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pew Charitable Trusts (2025)<\/a><\/td>\n130 Mt\/yr<\/td>\nTotal environmental release (broadest scope)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OECD (2025)<\/a><\/td>\n76 Mt accumulated by 2040<\/td>\nCumulative ocean accumulation projection<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Figures vary because different sources quantify different things. UNEP estimates capture all aquatic environments. IUCN considers plastics in any natural environment.<\/p>\n

Pew considers 130 Mt of plastics deposited onto land, air and water combined. OECD considers only estimates for accumulation in the ocean. For just about all B2B sourcing decisions, base decisions on UNEP 19-23 Mt range, because that measures the plastics being deposited from controlled waste streams into aquatic environments, ie., where your suppliers can intercept the plastics.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd0 Engineering Note: Where the Plastic Actually Comes From<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common source pathway of plastic to the oceans is land-based sources. While there is the well known Great Pacific Gyre and other floating plastic bodies of gyre accumulations are also renowned, the majority of the input is land sources. Ocean Bound Plastic certification – managed by the Zero Plastic Oceans<\/a> and audited by Control Union<\/a> – defines OBP as plastic generated by populations within around 50km of a coast, that are without established formal waste management system, and approximates generation of 80% of conventional plastic marine debris.<\/p>\n

Most ‘ocean plastic’ was not in fact floating in the open ocean; it washed off a beach, or was discharged into a river.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Although the plastic in the gyres is real, it is just the trade-off for a much larger flow from land. Marine species suffer either way: they are killed through ingesting or being entangled, and the plastic particles resulting from the breakdown of debris by wind and waves are now present in food chains and drinking water. If nothing is done, there could be 76 million tonnes of plastics in the ocean, forecast by the OECD to grow to 141Mt by 2060.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sea-to-Land: How Ocean Plastic Is Actually Collected<\/h2>\n

\"Sea-to-Land:<\/p>\n

There are three clusters in which collection methods group, each appropriate to an area of the plastic cycle as discussed above from human use through to the open ocean. The volumes they operate at are separated by orders of magnitude, and the type of contamination of the plastic recovered also differs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Collection Method<\/th>\nWhere It Operates<\/th>\nTypical Throughput<\/th>\nContamination Level<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Coastal collection (OBP)<\/td>\n\u226450 km from shoreline<\/td>\nHighest volume \u2014 millions of tonnes\/yr aggregated globally<\/td>\nModerate (sand, organic)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
River barriers (Interceptor)<\/td>\nRiver mouths, before plastic enters sea<\/td>\nHundreds of tonnes\/yr per unit<\/td>\nModerate-high (silt, vegetation)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Offshore cleanup (System 03)<\/td>\nOpen ocean (Pacific gyre)<\/td>\n~25 million kg\/yr (2025) at fleet scale<\/td>\nSevere (UV-degraded, biofouled, salt-saturated)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

How Does Plastic End Up in Rivers?<\/h3>\n

Rivers serve as conveyor belts conveying land-born plastics to the oceans. In urban areas on the coast, and even within inland watersheds where there is no curb side collection, plastic tipped into streets, drainage ditches and open dumps on land enters the drains and carried by the flow of storm water runoff to inland and coastal waters and enters the rivers. From there, ocean currents eventually carry the plastics to basin openings and finally to the open ocean.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor program addresses this stage – deploying solar-powered floating barriers to the most plastic-polluted rivers and capturing waste water before it reaches the water’s edge.<\/p>\n

A April 2025 The Ocean Cleanup news release measured a total of 25 million kilograms of plastic cleared from our oceans and rivers in 2025, more than twice the 11.5 million kg in 2024, and the first time cumulative output crossed the 50 million kg mark. That level of annual capture is barely 0.5% of a single year of ocean leakage\u2014relatively encouraging news of course, but an unmistakably clear indication that interception alone won’t do enough.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In order to eliminate plastic from the ocean, it is necessary to action two key steps: removal of the accumulated legacy pollution and prevention of the entering of new plastic through rivers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Boyan Slat, Founder & CEO, The Ocean Cleanup<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\ud83d\udca1<\/span> The 50-km Coast Rule<\/strong><\/div>\n

In order to meet the “ocean-bound” premise, any recovered plastic must come from the vicinity of a coastline that does not have a sufficient waste-management system \u2013 50km or less. Buyers of a genuine “ocean-recovered” good \u2013 taken from open water \u2013 face a more delicate query to ask their supplier: has this plastic already been in the ocean, or was it intercepted en route?<\/p>\n

That distinction matters, and in virtually all cases will mean entirely different quantities, prices and grades of material.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sea-to-Pellet: The 4-Stage Recycling Process<\/h2>\n

\"Sea-to-Pellet:<\/p>\n

All Ocean and Ocean Bound Plastic, upon collection, is directed into a four stage recycling line similar to that used for standard post consumer recycling, but with added waste and materials degradation issues to contend with. Here’s the flow chart, used by turnkey recycling plants across the globe. Saltwater, sand, biofouling, and UV damage all add to the engineering problem, but the categories of machinery involved are familiar.<\/p>\n

Stage 1 \u2014 Sorting and Shredding<\/h3>\n

Mixed incoming plastics: recovered plastic is contaminated with sand, organic film, multi-resin items, and metal inclusions. Manual or automated separation by resin type (mainly PET, HDPE, PE film, or PP) leads to washed streams that are sorted before feeding a shearing stage: an industrial plastic shredder<\/a> fitted with high carbon D2 or SKD-11 blades shreds to a homogeneous 10-50 m size. Shredder power draw depends on complexity of feed stock; light film 15 kW, heavy-walled HDPE drums, rigid ABS shells carry 200 kW. Making uniform flakes at this stage is a hard requirement for the aggressive washing downstream.<\/p>\n

Stage 2 \u2014 Washing and Contaminant Removal<\/h3>\n

This is the stage at which ocean plastic most visibly departs from clean post-industrial scrap. A hot caustic wash at 60-85 C dissolves hitherto-soap incompatible adhesives and organic resins. Friction washers operating at 900-1,200 rotations per minute mechanically strip salt, organic film, and adhered dirt. Specific to PET, a float sink tank separates bi-resin streams that are otherwise indistinguishable; PET flakes (SG>1.0 g\/cm) sink, while floating PE\/PP bottle caps and label fragments are separated out. For PE film resin, an additional squeeze-press step mechanically densifies the lightweight material, removing entrained water and enabled by the low-application-temperature starting stock. oceanic feedstock plastic washing modules at the heart of traditional ocean plastics reclamation systems employ multi-stage processes: hot wash caustic, friction rinse, hot wash, float sink, squeeze, cold rinse, centrifuge, dewatering.<\/p>\n

Stage 3 \u2014 Drying and Moisture Control<\/h3>\n

After washing, flakes may be as high as 40% moisture. Even minimal residual moisture content on plastics at this point impairs the downstream extruder’s ability to VENT a vacuum with the air and humidity that trigger inconsistent pellet outturns. Centrifugal dryers and screw-press dewatering machines may be used to drop residual moisture content below 3% (a level at which industrial extruders are not driving meeping bubbles through molten plastic). For PE film recycling lines, an extra squeeze-press step entrains any residual water pockets before the drying stage. Investing in the downstream pelletization equipment can be a waste of capital if you don’t get the plastics washing step right.<\/p>\n

Stage 4 \u2014 Pelletizing and Quality Control<\/h3>\n

Single- or two-stage extrusion systems fitted with 80-120 mesh melt filter screens produce cleaned-up material (up to 3% residual moisture) for pelletization. Three pelletizer geometries exist to suit different specifications: strand die extruders for bulk weighed batches, water ring die extruders for round pellets at high throughput, and die face die extruders for ultra-high throughput of the densest, hardest plastic. Final pellet density, color, melt flow index are set in the final pelletizer stage. TO be fit into a PET specific recycling line, the applicable PET specific hot wash line is used; flexible lines are fed through a PE film specific hot wash line.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd0 Engineering Note: PET vs PE\/PP Separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a PET (SG 1.34-1.39gcm) line, the ability to use a float sink tank downstream of grinding separates PET into two streams with distinct densities (1.18 and 0.97 g\/cm). PET origin stream can be diverted, and two-PET streams fed into a single pelletizer for blending. In a PE line, the float sink tank is eliminated and hot wash, friction rinse, and squeeze-presses are used to densify the flake. Mixing these process lines or omitting hot-wash degrades final quality in both directions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\u26a0\ufe0f<\/span> Common Misconception<\/strong><\/div>\n

“Ocean plastic” feedstock that reaches a recycling plant is not usually retrieved from the open ocean. Most, indeed, comes from coastal collection schemes, river interceptors and beach cleans, and this is the fingerprint of the contamination. Like-wise, plastic recovered from the open ocean has been in contact with the salt water for months and years, and the direct sunlight has imparted a weathered aging process, with broken polymer chains and less mechanical strength.<\/p>\n

Processes are scaled to cope with the reality of the general excess, not the glamorous minority.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This same 4-step workflow (shred, wash, dry, pelletize) becomes the backbone upon which processing changes when the input is blanketed ocean-bound PET bottles or post-industrial scrap. What scales up for ocean feedstock is the washing strength and tolerance for various material grades.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From Flake to Pellet: End-Product Quality Grades<\/h2>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

Not all recycled ocean pellets are converted into used for production of a sneaker upper or sunglass frame. That final grade is based on input contamination levels and the level of damage the polymer incurred from saltwater\/UV weathering during collection\/processing. Studies published in Marine Frontiers in Marine Science (2025)<\/a> and I\u00f1iguez et al. (2018)<\/a> have demonstrated that UV exposure in seawater reduces the thermal and mechanical properties of ten out eleven common plastics significant enough to normally grade the ocean-recovered output at one lower grade than land-sourced recycled options.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\u2714 Advantages of Mechanical Recycling<\/strong><\/p>\n