Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for the recovery and processing of mixed rigid plastics. In one embodiment the present invention relates to a method of processing recovered plastic flakes for an intended end-use application, that includes the following steps: (a) breaking the bale apart and sorting the mixed rigid plastics in the broken bale into streams of plastic materials, said sorting including resin type and physical properties of the plastic materials; (b) washing one or more of the streams of plastic materials to obtain clean flakes of plastic material in each stream; (c) comminuting the plastic flakes in one or more of the streams into particles of plastic material; and (d) compounding the particles of plastic material in one or more of the streams to obtain one or more plastic products configured for the intended end-use application.