Plastic

January 7th, 2010 @ kadraoui

Plastic Recycling Facts

Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Plastics require 100 to 400 years to breakdown at the landfill.

We now use about 20 times more plastic than we did 50 years ago.

Bottled water costs between $1 and $4 per gallon, and 90 percent of the cost is in the bottle, lid and label.

Plastic bottles can take up to 1000 years before they begin to decompose once buried.

Plastic Identification Numbers:

When working with plastics there is often a need to identify which particular plastic material has been used for a given product. Most consumers recognize the types of plastics by the numerical coding system created by the society of the plastics industry in the late 1980s. There are seven different types of plastic resins that are commonly used to package household products. the identification codes listed below can be found on the bottom of most plastic packaging.

(1) Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Soda & water containers, some waterproof packaging, tennis balls.
(2) High-density polyethylene (PE)
Milk, detergent & oil bottles. toys and plastic bags. 
(3) Vinyl / polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 
Food wrap, vegetable oil bottles, blister packages. 
(4) Low-density polyethylene (LDP)
Many plastic bags. shrink wrap, garment bags. 
(5) Polypropylene
Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops,
some carpets, some food wrap, chairs (back/seats). 
(6) Polystyrene
Throwaway utensils, meat packing, protective packing. 
(7) Other.
Usually layered or mixed plastic. no recycling potential – must be landfilled.

Source: http://www.petrecycling.net

Made From Recycled

There is a wide range of products made from recycled plastic

• Polyethylene bin liners and carrier bags.
• Plastic bottles.
• Flooring and window frames.
• Building insulation board.
• Video and compact disc cassette cases.
• Fencing and garden furniture.
• Water butts, garden sheds and composters.
• Seed trays.
• Fleeces.
• Fibre filling for sleeping bags and duvets.
• A variety of office accessories

How to Recycle Plastic?

There are a number of ways plastics are recycled. Plastics can be:

• Reused:
  Certain plastics can be reused, for example:
  Plastic Drink Bottles
  Carrier Bags
  Takeaway Containers
• What about other plastics?
  WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) based in UK; has recently completed a study that has demonstrated mixed plastics packaging (trays, tubs, pots, films etc) can be mechanically recycled and that it is both economically and environmentally effective to do so.  Further work is being conducted in this area and it it hoped that the UK will have comprehensive infrastructure for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of these valuable resources in the UK in the near future.
• The process:
  Mechanical recycling is the process of recycling plastics by:
• 1-sorting,

2-shredding,

3-washing,

4-melting,

5-pelletise.

• It is a two-stage process:
  Sorting is mainly done automatically with a manual polish; 
  Plastic is either melted down directly and moulded into a new shape, or shredded into flakes then melted down before being processed into granulates.

Tags: Facts, Plastic