How to recycle the PET

Within recyclable plastics there are different categories, exactly seven, so sometimes it can be confusing to know How to recycle plastic at home having so much variety of plastics.

How to know that a plastic is PET? It is very simple, the containers have symbols that allow us to identify the type of plastic with which it is made. For example, THE PET is identified with the Number 1 inside a triangle formed with arrows. The most common containers manufactured with this type of plastic are refreshing bottles, water and trays. Thus, at home we can already separate the plastics from the rest of the waste, but if we want to take advantage of the PET to reuse it, we already know how to differentiate it.

These containers with this symbol must be deposited in the yellow containerwhich will be collected by an authorized truck to transport them to a selection plant. As in the yellow container in addition to this type of plastic, other plastics and aluminum cans are deposited, the waste is sent to their corresponding recyclers, where the waste will become a new useful product. To better understand all this, we encourage you to read this other article about which plastics are recycled and which are not.

Do not forget that, although Recycle the PET It is an action that must be carried out to reduce the impacts on the environment, reuse must be the option that must first be assessed and, even before this option, it is necessary to remember to reduce the consumption of plastic products.

In addition, here you can find a practical guide on how to recycle plastic at home.

Once PET 1 plastic residues reach recycling plants, they can go through a chemical or mechanical recycling. This is the PET recycling process:

• He Chemical recycling It consists of a depolerization of the PET, for this chemical agents are used. The chemical processes for the transformation of PET can be of different types depending on the quality of the material, including: hydrolysis, pyrolysis, glycolysis, saponification and methanolysis.
• With respect to PET mechanical recyclingit is the one that is normally used in recyclers or recycling plants and different processes intervene.

PET recycling mechanical process

1. PET containers are selected and separated by colors and are compacted forming bales.
2. Subsequently, these bundles are undone to make the containers pass through some tapes to select the accepted containers and discard foreign materials.
3. Then everything goes to a grinding process by transforming the containers into small “PET flakes” that must be washed.
4. Once the material is washing all the humidity through the pressing and drying, to later make an optical selection to remove the colored flakes and only those transparent remain, to make sheets that will then serve to manufacture the new containers.

We also recommend knowing the recycling process of a plastic bottle with this other post of ecology.

Plastic bottles are made of PETand is one of the waste that is generally generated in homes. Next, some will be given Ideas to reuse PET:

• With two PET bottles we can make a case to save the pencils. To do this, we take the ends of the bottle that allow keeping the bottle standing. A bottle we cut it with the pencils, leaving the tip of the pencil stand out and the other bottle we cut it a little smaller, enough for the pencils to have space when fitting the two ends. As additional material a zipper will be needed to join them.
• If PET bottles are cut in half, in a transverse way, planters can be manufactured to sow aromatic plants, such as rosemary, mint, parsley, oregano, etc. Here we give you more ideas about how to make vertical gardens.
• If you like music, you can do maracas with these materials. You just have to take a bottle and fill it with some element that when moving the bottle generates a sound (buttons, small stones, chickpeas, rice or lentils), but it recounts not to fill it completely so that what you have put inside has space to move and make sound. Once stuffed, the opening of the bottle must be closed. Do not forget that all Maraca has its handle and to do so you must look for a material like a stick that can be noted to the bottle, and if it is better reused.
• With a bottle you can also make impressive vases to decorate the home.
• MANUFACTURE LINKS UNITING THE PET bottles, also if we have bottles of different colors, we can make several bins, each for a type of residue, so making separation at home easier.

In this other post we show you more ideas to recycle plastic bottles.

Actually, reusing should be considered as the first option rather than recycle, although when a residue cannot be reused, it is better to recycle it than to discard it in the trash where waste is deposited that cannot be recycled and that go to a landfill. As a summary, the Benefits of recycling and reusing PET are:

• Some of the most important is the preservation of natural resources, that is, if we recycle waste it is not necessary to extract new natural resources for the manufacture of new materials.
• Pollution of the environment is reduced, both of the earth and the water masses, which are especially contaminated by plastic.
• There is energy savings, since manufacturing a new product needs more processes than if we recycle one that already existed.
• It can also assume savings at home, since we can give waste another use such as, for example, for decoration.
• Decreased oil extraction, main plastic component.
• PET plastic for textile recycling can be used. Many textile industries take advantage of PET plastic containers to produce clothes.

Now that you know all this information about this type of plastics, it can also be useful to know how long it takes to degrade plastic, a very important point to understand the problem of pollution it generates and the benefit of recycling and reusing it.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to recycle the PETwe recommend that you enter our recycling and waste management category.