We are surrounded by plastic. Soft drink bottles, food bags and everything around us are made of plastic.
Many of these plastics are obtained from petrochemicals. The amount of plastic around us can have advantages and disadvantages.
Plastics cause pollution and create waste in the environment due to high accumulation. The effects of these wastes endanger human health and the environment.
Also, if plastics are not properly managed, the production and processing of new plastics causes a waste of resources. Therefore, plastics should be recycled in order to prevent both the waste of energy and the damage of this material to nature.
Considering the importance of plastic recycling, do you know what recycling means or how it is done?
In this article, we explain to you how plastics are recycled and what effect their recycling has on humans and the environment.
Recycling plastics is actually a great way to collect plastic waste. By recycling plastics, they can be returned to the production cycle and produce new plastic. By recycling plastics, you make sure that plastics are not wasted and they are used again.
Recycled plastics that are very common:
As we said in our daily life, we deal with all kinds of plastics that can be recycled. Now we have brought you some of the most common plastics that can be recycled:
- PET
PET or polyethylene terephthalate is one of the most popular thermoplastics in the world. Due to its thinness, this material is excellent for the production of low-pressure products. Among the products made with this material are clothing fibers and transparent bottles such as soft drink bottles.
For more information about our products made with this material, click on the link.
- PVC
PVC or polyvinyl chloride is another thermoplastic material. One of the most common plastic materials used all over the world. Among the products that are made of PVC, we can mention wires, pipes, bottles, etc.
- HDPE
HDPE or high density polyethylene is also a thermoplastic. HDPE is much softer and more flexible than PVC. Among the products that can be produced from HDPE are gallons, bottles, pipes.
For more information about our products made with this material, click on the link.
- LDPE
This material is just the opposite of HDPE. LDPE or low density polyethylene is mostly used to make plastic bags. In some cases, it is not easy to recycle this material, and instead of recycling it, they clean it and reuse it.
The reality is that you cannot recycle all types of plastics. Because some of these plastic products are made of different materials that are uneconomical to recycle.
For example, some recycling products are not recycled due to the long process and high cost. Sometimes, if we put these materials in the recycling cycle, it will stop the cycle and damage the recycling equipment.
- PS
PS is also considered a type of polymer. Among the products that are produced from this plastic, we can mention containers that are used to prepare yogurt and plastic cutlery.
- PP
PP is considered a type of polymer and most manufacturers use it to make plastic boxes, plastic furniture, plastic bottles , etc. Of course, in many cases, recycling companies reject it
With all that we said, recycling plastics depends on the type of material. Some plastic materials that are not recycled are either lost or buried in landfills.
Now we have to check together how plastics are recycled?
As we said, there are different types of plastics, and this is the reason that their recycling is not possible in the same way. But in general, there are two ways to recycle plastic:
- Recycling in the traditional way
The most common recycling method is for thermoplastic materials. Traditional recycling is also called mechanical recycling. In this method, plastics are melted and processed to become a new product. After melting, plastics are transformed into new products through a process called injection molding.
- Advanced recycling
In the advanced recycling method, chemicals cause the decomposition of plastic materials. This method consists of three techniques. Pyrolysis, chemical recycling and gasification
What is pyrolysis?
In fact, pyrolysis is a technique that turns plastic waste into crude oil.
What is chemical recycling?
In chemical recycling, polymers become monomers and can produce new products. Some manufacturers use chemical recycling techniques to produce nylon.
What is the gas conversion technique in advanced recycling?
As the name suggests, they turn plastic into gas and use the gas that is the result of this recycling to produce energy.
Both types of recycling that we explained, both traditional recycling and advanced recycling, have their own advantages. But the use of any of the methods depends on the available facilities. In fact, the product that is going to be produced by the recycler determines the recycling method.