Plastic Recycling – Cause And Effect

Plastic Recycling – Cause And Effect

Posted by Max Marston on July 30th, 2010

Plastic recycling is considered to be the most effective solution in decreasing plastic waste in the environment. Plastic waste is considered to be the main cause of water and soil pollution and therefore the recycling process is of great importance. This process, by which breaking down the scrap and waste plastics to recover useful materials, requires less energy to manufacture new plastic than creating original plastic from scratch. New fibres are created after numerous chemical structures and resins in the plastic are melted down.

From plastic bottles to packaging, plastic is a part of our daily lives and used in so many different products. Many of us do not give a second thought about what happens to the plastic we recycle and have no idea about the things made from recycled plastics. Some everyday items made from plastic include: Television remote controllers and video game systems controllers Insulating plastic that covers all appliance wires and connections Bottled water and milk containers etc…

Harmful effects of plastic in the environment: Plastic bags do not look good littered throughout the environment. Some plastics are not biodegradable. Plastic materials can cause animals harm, from choking and ingestion.

Benefits of recycling plastic to environment: Greenhouse gas emissions can be decreased: Recycling consumes less energy and creates less pollution as the number of steps is less than producing new. Landfills can be recovered: Today, one of the important problems being faced is the fact that there are fewer landfills (places to dump plastic waste) as they are being filled. An effective solution for this is to reduce dumping of plastic waste into landfills and go for recycling.

The following is an illustration of what happens to recycled plastic milk jugs. The jugs are separated first, from other plastics and then cleaned and ground down. The jugs are then melted down and go through an extruder that moulds them into rectangular shapes. The texture of this recycled plastic when it comes out of the extruder is very much like play dough. This plastic ‘dough’ is then sent through a cooling chamber, with jets of water used to make sure the plastic does not rise like bread dough, before being air-dried and sent through for a second time. This plastic lumber can then be made into many different products.

Though this process has many advantages, it is a complex procedure. Types and colours of plastics are required to be sorted appropriately, which can be monotonous for workers and as the material is not worth as much as brand new, it is less profitable also. People should still be educated to recycle plastics despite these negatives as the positives far outweigh them.

If you found this article about plastic recycling useful, you may be interested in Max Marston’s other article about paper recycling found here – http://remade.info/2010/07/16/recycling-isnt-just-for-glass-and-plastic-recycle-paper-too/

Visit http://www.wastecare.co.uk/ for all your waste management needs, including paper, plastic and metal recycling