Ever since the 80's when officials became increasingly aware of quickly filling landfills, recycling of plastic bottles has become as normal as throwing the trash out. In fact...nearly 80% of all households now have access to curbside or site recycling for plastics. But exactly what's it like for a day in the life of a recycled plastic bottle.
Step 1 Bottles are deposited in recycling bins
Step 2 Trucks carry the discarded bottles to a recycling center also known as a MRF(Materials Recovery Facility).
Step 3 Bottles are sorted by type(water, detergent, yogurt, soda, ketchup, etc)
Step 4 The bottles are then condensed into large 1000 pound bales that contain 7,000 to 8,000 bottles.
Step 5 Reclaimers then buy the bales by the truckload and have them shipped to their own manufacturing center
Step 6 At the manufacturing facility the bales are ripped apart with machinery and raked onto conveyor belts.
Step 7 The plastic is the shredded, washed, rinsed and dried
Step 8 The shredded plastic is then fed into an extruder which melts the plastic and forces the melted plastic into strands kind of like a big spaghetti maker.
Step 9 The strands are chopped into tiny pellets.
Step 10 The pellets are then sold to plastic product manufacturers. Depending on the product- the pellets are melted again, color added, etc.
That water bottle that you recycled is now a park bench, a deck board, a shoe, a lunch tray or even a T-shirt. There are literally thousands of uses for recycled plastic. And when the user of that product is done- the cycle can be started all over again....
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Thanks for the information...recycling is the way to go!