Plastic products are everywhere in the world. As dependence on these products lightweight and durable increased, so has the need for global innovation in recycling technologies. In recent decades the recycling companies developed a variety of processes to turn discarded plastics into hundreds of products from paint brushes to rugs and pillows, boat hulls and railroad ties.
Call Consumer
The biggest challenge for manufacturers of recycling is education and public participation. About 75 percent of Americans recycle newspapers and cardboard, while just over 25 percent of plastic recycling. Industry analysts that the low response rate may be due to a lack of understanding about the coding of recyclable plastics - the small triangle with a number in the center - which identifies the type of plastic element an is.
The most commonly recycled plastics from the seven groups of plastic polymers are 01 PET used in soda bottles and smaller containers, PE-HD 02, a harder and more durable plastic used in milk bottles and large trash bags, and PE-LD 04 that's tough yet flexible and is used in frozen food bags, flexible container lids and bottles of compression.
Although the rate of recycling of these and other items still not impressive, the numbers have been steadily increasing since 1990. In 2006, about 2. 2 billion pounds of PET plastic bottles were recycled and 928 million pounds of HDPE (high density polyethylene) containers for recycling.
Innovating in the production of PET
As awareness of the environmental damage done by polymers increased, so did the urgency to encourage recycling. At the same time, experimentation with the processing and application of rose. For example, according to a CNN report, a Ph. D. in India, Dr. S. Madhu, including crushed and melted plastic in a mix road surfaces. Working for the Highway Research Institute in Kerala, Madhu plastic mixing aggregates and asphalt to create a surface that resists the ravages of the annual monsoon season.
Working in a highly regulated environment, conventional recycling manufacturers focus on developing a long list of common products. Although processes vary, they generally follow a common methodology. First, plastics are sorted according to their identification number of PET. This is usually done before the recycled products reach the manufacturer. The "dirty", PET containers are also cleaned of labels, adhesives and other waste materials. A dirty regrind PET is coming back to applicants who process the material into a form that can be used by manufacturers. Re-applicants cleanest of the pollutant materials and materials that are lighter than plastic. The end of the PET flakes washed with a detergent that gets rid of the queues, food or dirt.
Then, the PET material are treated with the processes that separate the heavier particles of the lightest PET - this is called the float sink stage. The plastics are dry and ready to become new products in the hands of manufacturers worldwide.
However, new methods are constantly being developed to recycle PET products, including a polymerisation process that "reverses" the chemical process used to make the polymer. There are pilot projects that use this method and other innovative processes for recycling plastic more ecologically and economically.
Demand for recycled products
The importance of recycling PET and HDPE can not be ignored. The second, heavier PET is used to manufacture building materials are backyard decks that last longer than wood, it becomes lawn furniture, trash cans, office products, buckets, safety cones and much more. HDPE can also be used to manufacture above and below the water storage tanks underground to withstand decades of use.
Of the five major classes of PET plastic, the highest end use is for the manufacture of PET bottles and containers. Other classes include plastic sheeting or plastic used for small items such as molded scoops for laundry detergent, strapping materials for packaging and transport, resins used in molds for automotive parts and material combined to produce fibers for carpets, fabrics and fiber fillers.
Recycled PET can appear in unexpected places, such as business cards, sleeping bags, baseball caps and the welcome mat at the door of his house.
In the hands of the consumer
Ultimately, it all depends on consumers. Awareness of the environmental benefits of recycling plastic and the viability of the production of recycled PET to mitigate environmental damage and support a global industry that economic returns and useful products to market.
In the U.S., many municipal governments have made it easier for consumers to recycle plastic. Cities to accept all plastic products with recycling symbol and make a selection before shipping out for further processing. The consumer is not faced with separate numbers PET or peeling labels. Many states have passed laws commonly known as "bottle bills" that charge a small fee for plastic containers. There is greater value to consumers to recycle when there is the inducement of a surrender value. Some communities have "drop off" recycling centers and others have "buy" the centers that consumers pay for recyclable materials.
Whatever method of recycling or process that recreates the value of PET products discarded, it is clear that the public, governments and industry share an interest in financial and environmental practice for plastic recycling.