How to Recycle Plastics

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How to Recycle Plastic

Plastics form an integral part of day to day human life. From packaging, to manufacture of electronics and making utility items like cups and plates. While some plastic items are relatively easy to re-use, most of plastics do not have a safe disposal mechanism, hence they cause land pollution. As a result, these plastics are recycled through industrial processes that seek to transform waste plastic into new plastic products.

Below is a step by step process of how to recycle plastic.

1.Collection and Sorting

A major challenge in plastic recycling is gathering waste plastic in a central point. Different people have different levels of awareness as to how to dispose plastic waste. Less developed countries face the problem of scattered plastic on land. Bearing in mind that plastic, is non-biodegradable, such reckless disposal leads to land pollution. The first step therefore, is to ensure that waste plastic is collected and kept at a central point. After collection, sorting is done based on resin content in the plastic and the color of such plastic. Resins form the main base for differentiating plastics.

2.Shredding and Cleaning

Once sorted, the plastic is shredded in small chunks which are then cleaned using detergents. The significance of shredding plastic is to make them easy to process through the specialized machinery used in the recycling process. Cleaning on the other hand rids the waste plastic of contaminants which may be carried on to the final products of recycling. In this step, the plastic is further subjected to sorting using a special machine that separates the plastic chunks based on resin types hosted in the waste plastic.

3.Melting and Transformation

After the plastic is cleaned and contaminants removed, it is melted in malleable liquid that can further be processed into different forms. The malleable liquid can be used to make new plastic products. Alternatively, the liquid can be solidified into granules or pellets which can also be used to form new plastic products from scratch.

Examples of commonly recycled plastic products

Plastic have a wide range of uses which determine how often they fall back into the ecological cycle.For instance, plastics used in the manufacture of electronics generally take longer time to be recycled than those used in packaging of food products. The most commonly recycled plastic products are therefore; polyethylene terephthalate, used in the manufacture of food packaging cans, polyethylene, used in the manufacture of plastic bags and Polyvinyl chloride used in the manufacture of water pipes and clings.

Depending on where the plastic is recycled, this process is varied. Different industries employ different process manuals in recycling plastic. In the manufacture of some plastic products like PVC pipes, some additional chemicals must be added to the recycled plastic in order to make a new product. Nevertheless, the above steps are a generalization of the recycling process.

Recycling plastics is not only an economical process that saves on plastic but also an environmental preservation strategy that reduces instances of land pollution.