The Recycling Process Most of the things we use can be recycled into something new and it couldn’t be easier to do… There are so many reasons why we need to recycle, Five compelling reasons to make an effort to recycle whatever we can where ever we can are that it saves natural resources, saves energy, saves clean air and water, saves landfill space and saves money and creates jobs not to mention the benefits to our general environment. The transformation that takes place when you recycle is quite amazing. For example: in several days, your paper could come back as another newspaper in several weeks your metal could be recycled and used as part of a fridge, a car, plane… or simply another metal can! your glass could be recycled as new bottles, house insulation or roading plastic could be made into a cosy fleece jacket or a work shirt! Let’s show you how the recycling process of plastic takes place. Step 1 Plastic is collected and taken to a material reclamation facility (MRF) where they are sorted into their different types of plastics – HDPE, PET and PVC. Step 2 Once sorted the plastic is squashed tightly into bales and transported to a reprocessing factory where the plastic is cut up into small flakes about the size of a colourful paper clip. The flakes are washed to remove any dirt and labels and then they are dried. Step 3 & 4 The clean plastic flakes are then sent to factories where they are melted down and made into new items such as fiber which can be dyed. Step 5 Recycled plastic can be made into all sorts of new products including outdoor furniture, promotional key rings, photo frames, drain pipes and even fashion clothing.
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