Plastic Recycling
Plastic is one of the most widely used products. We use it to package consumer products, to charge our purchases with credit cards, to carry our food and drink, to build our toys and to even make our clothing.
Plastic recycling is the process of reprocessing used scrap and waste plastic into new plastic material. Recycling old plastic products uses 20%-40% less energy than manufacturing it from new.
Types of plastic products can be recycled
The two most recyclable categories are:
Marked “1”
This category contains PET or PETE (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastics. These plastics include:
- Soda and water bottles
- Mouthwash bottles
- Plastic wrap
- Peanut butter and other food jars
- Salad dressing bottles
Marked “2”
This category contains HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastics. These plastics include:
- Milk containers
- Trash bags
- Yogurt containers
- Liquid laundry detergent containers
- Shampoo bottles
- Juice containers
Benefits of Recycling Plastic
- Recycled plastic can be made into plastic lumber, which is more durable.
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
- Can be used to make toys, park benches, car parts, drainage pipes and more.
- For every 7 trucks it takes to deliver paper bags, it only takes 1 truck to deliver plastic bags.
- Recycled soda bottles can be reused to make filling for pillows and jackets.
Plastic is created by combining petroleum or natural gas with oxygen or chlorine. This process requires the burning of large amounts of oil. If we recycled all of our plastics we could reduce our oil consumption and save 25% of our landfill space.