How are plastics recycled

How are plastics recycled

It’s never been easier to recycle a wide variety of everyday plastic packaging.

Plastic bottles, jars and containers, along with their caps and lids, can be recycled in many curbside programs.

You can even recycle plastic bags and flexible wraps by dropping them off at many large grocery stores.

So what happens when your recyclables are picked up?

The contents of your bin are taken to a recycling center

Where they are separated by material type

Plastic bottles and their caps are ground into flakes

The flakes from plastic beverage bottles and their caps are placed in water

The cap flakes float to the top, while the bottle flakes sink to the bottom

This makes it easy for recyclers to separate them by plastic type

Sorted plastic flakes are washed and dried, and some of them are melted into a gooey liquid,

The melted plastic is pushed through a small opening to create long, thin strands.

The plastic stands are chopped into pellets

Manufactures use the recycled plastic pellets to make a new plastic products.

These images are only representative of the many plastic recycling processes in use today.