The invention relates to a method and a processing plant (1) for plastic material, for the recycling thereof. To this end, the processing plant (1) comprises a feed device (4), a processing unit (2) having a comminuting device (5) and a conveying device (6) adjoining the comminuting device (5), and an extrusion device (3) having an extruder screw (21). During its conveying movement along a first conveying section (9) toward a transfer region (8) by means of the conveying device (6), the comminuted plastic material is heated to a transfer temperature with a mean temperature value, which falls into the range of the softening temperature of the plastic material. In the transfer region (8), the comminuted plastic material is transferred to the extrusion device (3).