The Recycle for Cornwall campaign has been developed to raise public awareness of recycling and to provide consumers with a compelling reason to recycle.
Plastics in some form have been with us for around 100 years. From food packaging to nylon tights, plastics in various forms are a part of everyday life, making up about 11% of an average household's waste. A raw material that goes into making all sorts of plastic is oil. We are in danger of using up all of our reserves of this non renewable resource which has taken millions of years to form from dead plants and animals.
Recycling plastics is more difficult to many other materials, because there are many different types, which often need to be recycled separately. Therefore, at the moment we can only recycle plastic ‘bottles’ in Cornwall.
Recycled plastic bottles can be turned into a multitude of products from bin liners and garden furniture to CD cases and even fleece jackets! The amount of plastic used to make items for first use has been reduced over recent years to cut down on the amount of plastic we consume. For example, yoghurt pots have been reduced in weight from 12g to 5g.
How are plastics recycled?
Sorted From the recycling centres in Cornwall, bales of plastic bottles are sent to a plastics re-processor. Although the bottles in these bales have already been sorted through by hand, they are broken up and go through a final screening stage to remove any items that cannot be recycled – such as margarine tubs.
Chopped and Flaked The plastic bottles are washed and chopped into flakes, sometimes plastics are be separated in a floatation tank where different forms of plastic sink and others float. The plastic flakes are then dried in a giant tumble dryer.
Melted The dried flakes are fed into an extruder, where heat and pressure melt the plastic. Different types of plastics melt at different temperatures.
Filtered The molten plastic is forced through a fine screen to remove any contaminants that slipped through the washing process. The molten plastic is then formed into strands.
Pelletised The strands are cooled in water, then chopped into uniform pellets. Manufacturing companies buy the plastic pellets from recyclers to make new products.
Some Plastics Facts
Recycling plastic bottles saves energy – by making a plastic bottle from recycled plastics instead of from virgin materials enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours is saved!
A key ingredient in plastic is oil – some reports suggest within the next 50 years we will run out of supplies of this non renewable resource.
Plastic bottles from Cornwall go on to become lots of different products including piping, compost bins and even furniture.
One type of plastic called ‘PET’ can be used to make fleece material. PET bottles are the type of bottles that contain things like water and fizzy drinks.
