Plastics are durable, lightweight materials that were invented in 1909. They are normallymade from oil and natural gas.
Using plastics 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 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 less fuel usageand therefore less air pollution from truck exhaust. recycling plastic Essay 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 space 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, 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 entirely 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 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 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. Next they are shredded up into pieces and then melted together. Thenthey are molded back into new plastic products. Plastic containers must be rinsed, and lidsand rings must be removed and thrown away.
Removing lids and rings is critical, becausethey are made from different resins than the resins used to make containers. A few lids lefton bottles or jugs can cause a bale of plastic to be rejected. Plastic is probably the most used prduct in world. There are thousands of differentuses for plastic that are needed every single day.
Every year more and more plasticproducts are being recycled. In 1995 Americans recycled only 9. 5% of there plastics. In1996 Americans recycled 22. 1%of their plastic products.
That 22. 1% was equal to585,000 tons of plastic bottles. Today almost 64% of Americans recycle their plasticproducts which is over a hundred millions tons of plastics bottles. More and more peopleeach year are getting in to the habit of recycling. Why shouldnt we, it doesnt cost usanything to take our plastic products to the recycling center. We all must do our part tosave the earth while we still can.
Only we can save our earth and we only have one chanceat it. Once we screw it up we can never go back. .
