what are some of the ways one can recycle plastic?

Answer 1

Any kind of plastic can be recycled. You can find details on the topic in one of the following sites:
Waste online at http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm
Recycling Plastic at http://www.chemsoc.org/ExemplarChem/entries/2004/bristol_whitehead/facts.htm

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Plastic bottles can be cut toward the bottom. I especially liked the effect with the Dasani water bottles. Place the bottoms inside of each other with differing cuts to the edges and they appear to be tulip-like flowers. To bend the petals slightly I have used a heat gun. I have also used the heat gun to make the sides of the bottles soft enough to not cut my hands. I used a sharp scissors and pruners to cut the plastic. I haven't tried it yet but I think that different pieces of cut sides could be fused together into a stained glass type of project. A warning however: make sure there is a source of plenty of fresh air whenever using the heat gun and use gloves when cutting and manipulating the plastic to avoid cuts. The fumes from warming plastic gives quite the headache.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Plastics are used in a wide range of applications and some plastics items, such as food packaging, become waste only a short time after purchase. Other plastic items lend themselves to be reused many times over.

Reusing plastic is preferable to recycling as it uses less energy and fewer resources. Long life, multi-trip plastics packaging has become more widespread in recent years, replacing less durable and single-trip alternatives, so reducing waste. For example, the major supermarkets have increased their use of returnable plastic crates for transport and display purposes four-fold from 8.5 million in 1992 to an estimated 35.8 million in 2002. They usually last up to 20 years and can be recycled at the end of their useful life.

According to a 2001 Environment Agency report, 80% of post-consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill, 8% is incinerated and only 7% is recycled. In addition to reducing the amount of plastics waste requiring disposal, recycling plastic can have several other advantages:

Conservation of non-renewable fossil fuels - Plastic production uses 8% of the world's oil production, 4% as feedstock and 4% during manufacture.
Reduced consumption of energy.
Reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill.
Reduced emissions of carbon-dioxide (CO2), nitrogen-oxide (NO) and sulphur-dioxide (SO2).
Plastic process scrap recycling
Currently most plastic recycling in the UK is of 'process scrap' from industry, i.e. polymers left over from the production of plastics. This is relatively simple and economical to recycle, as there is a regular and reliable source and the material is relatively uncontaminated. Process scrap represents some 250,000 tonnes of the plastic waste arisings in the UK and approximately 95% of this is recycled. This is usually described as reprocessing rather than recycling.

Post-use plastic recycling
Post-use plastic can be described as plastic material arising from products that have undergone a first full service life prior to being recovered. Households are the biggest source of plastic waste, but recycling household plastics presents a number of challenges. One of these relates to collection. With over 20 million UK households, kerbside recycling systems are required to regularly collect relatively small quantities of mixed plastics from a large number of sources. Currently, just over half of local authorities offer some form of plastic bottle collection service, and only an estimated 15% of UK households are served by kerbside collections that include plastic bottles. The densest network of plastic bottle collection schemes is found in the South and East of England and the Midlands. East Anglia, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have the least coverage. There are approximately 4,000 plastic bottle collection banks in the UK.

RECOUP (RECycling Of Used Plastics Limited) undertakes an annual survey of plastic bottle recycling activity in the UK. Results of the most recent survey indicate that an estimated 24,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected in 2003. However, this still only amounts to approximately 5.5% of all plastic bottles sold.

Mechanical recycling
Mechanical recycling of plastics refers to processes which involve the melting, shredding or granulation of waste plastics. Plastics must be sorted prior to mechanical recycling. At the moment in the UK most sorting for mechanical recycling is done by trained staff who manually sort the plastics into polymer type and/or colour. Technology is being introduced to sort plastics automatically, using various techniques such as X-ray fluorescence, infrared and near infrared spectroscopy, electrostatics and flotation. Following sorting, the plastic is either melted down directly and moulded into a new shape, or melted down after being shredded into flakes and than processed into granules called regranulate.

Chemical or feedstock recycling
Feedstock recycling describes a range of plastic recovery techniques to make plastics, which break down polymers into their constituent monomers, which in turn can be used again in refineries, or petrochemical and chemical production. A range of feedstock recycling technologies is currently being explored. These include: pyrolysis, hydrogenation, gasification and thermal cracking. Feedstock recycling has a greater flexibility over composition and is more tolerant to impurities than mechanical recycling, although it is capital intensive and requires very large quantities of used plastic for reprocessing to be economically viable (e.g. 50,000 tonnes per year).

Plastics recycling in the UK
In 1998, a pilot feedstock recycling plant went operational at BP's Grangemouth site in Scotland, with a capacity to process 400 tonnes of mixed plastic waste per annum. A feasibility study into its viability concluded that a 25,000 tonnes per annum plant could be supported from the area's municipal waste sources alone.

In 1991, LINPAC Plastics Recycling opened a unique plant with the ability to recycle post-consumer polystyrene products. The plant, based in Allerton Bywater, West Yorkshire, has a capacity of over 14,000 tones per year, which is set to increase to 25,000 tonnes per year by 2005. The plant is able to process fast food boxes, meat trays, egg cartons, yoghurt pots, vending cups, and a range of other polystyrene products. In addition, the plant processes a range of polyethylene and polypropylene goods, such as bottles, crates, sheets, caps, pipes and fibres.

Degradable and bio-plastics
Degradable plastics
A number of UK retailers have recently introduced degradable carrier bags. These bags are made from plastic which degrades under certain conditions or after a predetermined length of time. There are two types of degradable plastic: bio-degradable plastics, which contain a small percentage of non oil-based material, such as corn starch; and photodegradable plastics, which will break down when exposed to sunlight.

Degradable plastics are already being used successfully in Austria and Sweden, where McDonalds has been using bio-degradable cutlery for three years. This enables all catering waste to be composted without segregation. Carriers for packs of beer cans are now being manufactured in a plastic which photo-degrades in six weeks. There is also potential to use such plastics in non-packaging applications such as computer or car components.

There are a number of concerns over the use of degradable plastics. First, these plastics will only degrade if disposed of in appropriate conditions. For example, a photodegradable plastic product will not degrade if it is buried in a landfill site where there is no light. Second, they may cause an increase in emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, as methane is released when materials biodegrade anaerobically. Third, the mixture of degradable and non-degradable plastics may complicate plastics sorting systems. Last but not least, the use of these materials may lead to an increase in plastics waste and litter if people believe that discarded plastics will simply disappear.

Bio-plastics
A number of manufacturers have been exploring alternatives to plastics made from non-renewable fossil-fuels. Such alternative 'bio-plastics' include polymers made from plants sugars and plastics grown inside genetically modified plants or micro-organisms.

Health and safety concerns have arisen over potentially hazardous chemical additives to plastics and consumer pressure has contributed to manufacturers switching to plant-based plastics in such cases. For example, the world's largest toy manufacturer Mattel announced in 1999 that PVC would be replaced with plant-based plastics in new products from 2001 onwards. A range of other companies, including LEGO, IKEA, Nike and The Bodyshop have made similar pledges.

Use of recycled plastic
There is a wide range of products made from recycled plastic.This includes polyethylene bin liners and carrier bags; PVC sewer pipes, flooring and window frames; building insulation board; video and compact disc cassette cases; fencing and garden furniture; water butts, garden sheds and composters; seed trays; anoraks and fleeces; fibre filling for sleeping bags and duvets; and a variety of office accessories.

The Recycled Products Guide (RPG) www.recycledproducts.org.uk is a listing of products made from recycled. Buying recycled products is a practical way of supporting markets for recycled products and 'closing the loop'. In addition, a list of suppliers of goods made from recycled plastic is available on RECOUP's website (see useful contacts).

It takes 25 two litre plastic drinks bottles to make one fleece garment.
Despite the wide range of recycled plastics applications, the actual tonnage of waste plastic which is returned to the material cycle is relatively small. Currently, recycled plastics are rarely used in food packaging - the biggest single market for plastics - because of concerns about food safety. A method of addressing this problem is by enclosing the recycled plastic between layers of virgin plastic to ensure the packaging conforms to hygiene standards. These multi-layered containers are now being used in some drinks bottles, but recycling cannot eliminate the colours from plastics so they cannot be used in transparent or light coloured applications.

Another constraint on the use of recycled plastics is that, to be economically viable, plastic processors require large quantities of recycled plastics, manufactured to tightly controlled specification at a competitive price in comparison to that of virgin polymer. This is a challenging task, particularly in view of the diversity of sources of waste plastics, the wide range of polymers used and the high potential for contamination of plastics waste.

In order to encourage market development for recycled material applications, the UK Government has set up the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) whose task is to promote sustainable waste management by creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products (see useful contacts).

Plastics waste collection systems
An increasing number of local authorities are now providing plastics collection services. Research by RECOUP has shown that local authorities can achieve cost-effective high-achieving plastics collection systems by integrating plastic bottle collection with other recyclable materials. For example, Daventry District Council introduced such a system in 1998 and has been able to increase recycling rates from 12% to nearly 50%.

In Adur, West Sussex, and Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, plastic bottles and polystyrene are collected through 'blue box' schemes, where residents place recyclable materials in a separate box for sorting by the refuse collectors at the kerbside. Plastics and other materials are sorted into a compartmentalised vehicle, then taken to the Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) for final sorting before transport to reprocessing plants.
Rather than throwing them away, give plastic toys or containers to children's scrap stores or playgroups for reuse. Further details can be found here
Use plastic containers and bags again or make them into something else. For example use yoghurt pots to grow seedlings, use the top part of drinks bottles as cloches for plants and offer clean plastic carrier bags to charity shops.
Buy products that are refillable. For example, the Body Shop provides refills in its containers or takes them back for recycling. The recycled plastic is used to make items like nailbrushes and combs.
Think of ways of reducing the need for packaging. Don't add extra packaging yourself - a melon, a grapefruit or a bunch of bananas already has natural packaging - does it need to go in a plastic bag as well as your shopping bag, and does that already efficiently packaged dairy product or piece of meat really need another wrapper?
Ask your local authority recycling officers which materials are currently collected or may be collected in the future.
Look for products, e.g. bin liners and refuse sacks, made from recycled plastic, now available in many supermarkets. Also look out for products packaged in at least partially recycled material. For example, Shell Oil's 1 litre and 4 litre Helix oil packs now contain a proportion of recycled plastic, collected from domestic and industrial waste.
If it does not already run one, suggest to your local authority that it considers starting a plastics recycling scheme. The development of market opportunities has meant that at the moment demand is outstripping supply of plastic bottles, so new initiatives are needed to feed the process and ensure its success.
Encourage your local authority to buy products, such as street furniture, made from recycled plastic rather than wood.