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Recycled Plastics
Plastic Facts
Every day thousand tons of plastic is used and disposed in the form of disposable cups to thin cellular packing. Statistics say that about 85 % of these plastics are sent to landfill or dumped elsewhere. This will be a great environmental threat in the coming years. However in the underdeveloped countries and developing countries 40% of plastic is recycled and plastic recycling offers a huge employment opportunity.
Many of the things we use every day, like soda cans, and milk cartons, are made out of plastic that can be recycled. Recycled items are put through a process that makes it possible to create new products out of the materials from the old ones.
Plastic takes a long time to break down—yet only about 5% of plastic is currently being recycled.
Most of the plastic can be recycled, some more easily than others. The most commonly recyclable types of plastic are polyethylene terephthalate, also called “Plastic #1,” and high-density polyethylene, called “Plastic #2.” Plastic #1 is the type of plastic that soda bottles are made out of. Plastic #2 is the type of plastic used to make milk jugs. You can tell what kind of plastic a container is made out of by looking for a number inside the recycle symbol (usually located on the bottom of the container).
Here we have listed the types of resin
and the plastic content in the products .
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Recycling one ton of plastic saves the
equivalent of 1,000–2,000 gallons of gasoline
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A one gallon plastic milk container that weighed
120 grams in sixties now weighs just 65 grams.
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10% of the average grocery bill pays for
packaging (mostly paper and plastics) - that's
more than goes to the farmers.
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In 1993, plastics accounted for 11.5% of the
U.S. municipal waste stream by weight (23.9% by
volume). In 1994, plastics comprised 9.5% (by
weight) of the waste stream.
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The rate of plastic soda bottle recycling rose
from 33% in 1990 to 50% in 1994.
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Products made from recovered plastic bottles
include drainage pipes, toys, carpet, filler for
pillows and sleeping bags, and cassette casings.
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