Plastic bottles are manufactured with, among other materials, oil and a large amount of water, more than they will contain later. They are used and if they are not thrown into the corresponding container, the yellow, they last in the environment for centuries, because they take a large amount of time to degrade and, meanwhile, they contaminate. But what happens when they are thrown into the corresponding container and reach the recycling plant? What is the method to recycle plastic bottles?
In Ecology Verde we want to get closer to the world of recycling and, therefore, we have prepared this article to explain The recycling process of a plastic bottle.
What is a recycling plant
It is important to know first What are recycling plantssince it is where several parts of the Recycling process of a plastic bottle. Recycling or recycling plants are facilities where the process of different materials is done, such as different plastics, paper and cardboard, glass, etc., in order to take advantage of them once again, repeating the cycle the maximum of times to take advantage of the real life of each material.
In these plants the materials are separated and from there they take specialized plants, except the large recycling plants that can also do the work of recycling the different materials until the end on their own.
How a plastic bottle is recycled
Now that we know what a recycling plant is, we focus on How the plastic is recycled and what is used In the case of plastic bottles. These are the steps that are followed for the recycling of plastic bottles:
- Recyclable plastic bottles are thrown into the yellow container to be recycled.
- The trucks of the recycling plants collect the bottles and take them to each plant.
- The bottles are pressed and large blocks are formed.
- The bottles are washed, their labels are deleted, dry and classify them according to the type of plastic and to be used.
- The bottles are crushed in small pieces and wash and dry again.
- Now, in flakes,What is done with the recycling plastic of the bottles? Well, they begin to use in a new process of manufacturing products such as new plastic bottles, containers, textile fiber, clothing such as polar linings, toys, and so on.
Explained in more detail, we can say that for recycle plastic bottles From the fact that they are thrown in the indicated container, they collect them and hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles reach the recycling plant, they follow this process.
So, They presses To occupy less space and large rectangular blocks are formed, as if they were large blocks of bricks, so that they can be handled more comfortably. From there, the true recycling process begins, of transformation of a huge number of bottles of plastics in other objects, whether other bottles, other containers, and so on.
First of all, The bottles are washed. In this process large amounts of water and detergent are necessary, which in some recycling plants can be constantly reused to spend less. Then, the labels that are attached to the bottles are eliminated, one of the most polluting materials.
The bottles are once clean and without labels, They are dried and classified. PET bottles go on the one hand, those of PVC on the other, those of PE, those of ABS and other types of plastic on the other. In addition, in some plants, an optical recognition system separates them by colors.
Once the bottles are separated by type, and passing before a cleaning line in which operators make the last discard of bottles that cannot be recycled for some reason. Those that can be recycled They are crushedleaving the plastic reduced to a small pieces that resemble tiny broken crystals or a kind of plastic flakes. In this part of the process, a liquid is generated to be separated. Small pieces of plastic have to be washed and dried once again.
With the material taken from this basic process, it can already be sold to other companies or use it within the recycling plant itself to make new plastic bottles.
What plastics are recycled and which do not
If you wonder What is the plastic that can be recycledYou are interested in knowing that there is a code called Plastic Identification Code or ric (Resin Identification Code). This serves to identify and classify the plastic materials that can be recycled. The code consists of symbols and numbers.
The symbol is a triangle made with three arrows that indicate the reuse and recycling of the material, a number that can go from 1 to 7 and some letters, such as PET, PVC or HDPE, among others. These can be discarded in the yellow container or in him Clean pointthe rest of plastics that do not carry these codes must be taken to the clean or green point.
In addition, in this other ecology article, we tell you everything in detail about which plastics are recycled and which are not.
If you want to read more articles similar to The recycling process of a plastic bottlewe recommend that you enter our recycling and waste management category.
