Rather than dumping the plastics into the environment, we can recycle them which can be further useful. Plastics recycling keeps still-useful materials out of landfills and encourages businesses to develop new and innovative products made from them.
Recycling plastics is a two-stage process, the first one is sorting, which is done automatically with the manual sort to ensure all containments are removed. After sorting, is the melting process, where plastics are melted to form pellets before finally molded into new products. The main purpose is to minimize the huge amount of plastic pollution by having less pressure on materials that produce brand new ones.
Plastics are durable and inexpensive materials that can be manufactured into different products. Every year, more than 100 million tons of plastics are manufactured across the globe.
The most important benefit of plastic recycling is :
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It reduces the amount of solid waste that gets dumped in the land.
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It reduces one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
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It reduces the consumption of energy for the new plastic production.
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It reduces gas emissions like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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It conserves non-renewable fuel.
According to a 2009 research study by Peter Glieck and Heather Cooley from the Institute of California, a pint-sized bottle of water requires about 2,000 times as much energy to produce the same amount of tap water.
There are certain types of plastics that can be recycled or cannot. In some products, it is clearly mentioned the type of plastic they have made and how to recycle them. Most of the plastics are made from fossil-based or bio-based materials which can be used to make non-biodegradable and highly durable plastics. Only this kind of plastics can be recycled. Some compostable plastics and biodegradable plastics can be home composted but cannot be recycled. The use of recycled plastics in products requires creative thinking on the part of designers, technicians, and manufacturers. Artists create recycled plastics into the art objects which raise environmental awareness and inspire creative thinking. The use of plastic materials is very much adapted for packaging materials for beverages, detergent, and other consumer goods. The ingredient of polyethylene terephthalate has given plastic bottles several advantages. They are economical to make, safe to use, and are recyclable.
While recycling is important, one of the best ways to minimize the amount of plastic is the reusable grocery bags, which are now popular.
Source: livescience.com
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