recycling plastic :: essays research papers

Plastics are durable, lightw viii materials that were invented in 1909. They are normally do from oil and natural gas. Using moldables to replace packaging materials such as metaland glass has allowed manufacturers to make packages that are more efficient. Forexample to bottle eight gallons of a beverage would take only two pounds of elastic butwould take three pounds of aluminum, eight pounds of steel and 27 pounds of glass. Thelight weight of fictile packaging helps reduce transportation costs. It takes fewer trucks totransport plastic compared to metal or other materials. Fewer trucks mean less fuel usageand thence less air pollution from truck exhaust. Recycling plastic containers helps to conserve landfill space and natural resourcesand to cut down on pollution. Since the number of landfills continues to diminish, keepingplastic containers out of landfills is important. Plastics do not degrade in landfills. Therefore, containers you throw away will be taking up landfill spa ce hundreds of yearsfrom now. Making plastic products from recycled plastic also reduces air and waterpollution, and energy used for making plastics from raw materials. Recycled plastic isused to make products such as plastic lumber, toys, containers, carpet, part 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 be thrust fewer raw materialsare required and less energy is needed to make recycled plastic products than to makeplastic products entirely from raw materials. There are antithetical 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 kept separate.Therefore, plastic packages are coded to indicate the type of resin used to make them. Thecode numbers are found inside the chasing recycling arrows on the bottoms of conta iners.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 more or less 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.