The conventional methods for recovering effluent gas in polyethylene processes include compression condensing, membrane separation, cryogenic separation systems and pressure swing adsorption. Since the effluent gas content varies with the process, there is no single recovery technic can meet all effluent gas content conditions. Therefore, a systematic strategy is needed to guide the selection of recovery technologies. This article introduces a method to select the best recovery system for certain compositions of effluent gas. After searching the feasible content region for the recovery systems according to the specified concentration of recycle stream and outlet streams, it shows PSA system has the largest feasible region while compression condensation system has the smallest one. In comparison of economic and exergetic performance, the cryogenic separation system shows its outstanding peculiarity to recover the effluent gas. The obtained result is effective in guiding the design of recovery system. (C) 2016 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.