recycling plastic :: essays research papers

Plastics are durable, lightweight materials that were invented in 1909. They are normallymade from vegetable oil and natural gas. Using pliables to replace incase materials such as metaland glass has allowed manufacturers to energise packages that are more efficient. Forexample to bottle eight gallons of a beverage would take only two pounds of plastic butwould take three pounds of aluminum, eight pounds of steel and 27 pounds of glass. Thelight weight of plastic packaging helps reduce transportation costs. It takes fewer trucks totransport plastic compared to metal or other materials. Fewer trucks mean slight fuel usageand therefore less air pollution from truck exhaust. cycle plastic containers helps to conserve land fit space and natural resourcesand to cut down on pollution. Since the number of landfills continues to diminish, keepingplastic containers egress of landfills is burning(prenominal). Plastics do not degrade in landfills. Therefore, containers you throw away w ill be taking up landfill space hundreds of yearsfrom now. Making plastic products from recycled plastic also reduces air and waterpollution, and energy used for making plastics from fond materials. Recycled plastic isused to make products such as plastic lumber, toys, containers, carpet, fiber fill for jacketsand flowerpots. There are over 1,500 products made with or packaged in recycled plastic. Such uses reduce natural resource consumption and pollution because fewer raw materialsare required and less energy is needed to make recycled plastic products than to makeplastic products consummately from raw materials. There are different kinds mixtures of resinsthat make thousands of types of plastics. Ink pens, car parts and plastic bags are all madefrom different resins. In order to recycle plastics, the different types must be unplowed separate.Therefore, plastic packages are coded to indicate the type of resin used to make them. Thecode meter are found inside the chasing recycli ng arrows on the bottoms of containers.These numbers help you separate plastic containers for recycling collection or drop off.Uncoded plastics, such as plastic pipes, cannot be recycled but can be reused.Recycling is a six step process. First they must be cleaned and separated by thetype of plastic and by color. The first step is the most important one in the process.Colored plastics cannot be mixed with clear plastics, and plastics with different codenumbers cannot be mixed together. Mixing plastics can cause entire bales to be rejectedand possibly to be sent to a landfill. They are then compacted and shipped off to theprocessing facility.