How to Make Old Plastic Look New Again
For many, environmentalism begins with the recycling symbol and ends at the recycling bin. The unproblematic act of throwing something away into a big box marked with a recycling sign is enough to make some of us feel similar we've done our function.
Information technology'due south like eating only one-half of a chocolate chip cookie– we indulge, but not that much. Similarly, our faith in the magic of the recycling bin makes purchasing and using plastic products a little more guilt-free.
Just recycling is a lot more complicated, and the process of recycling plastics is significantly less transparent than the much-Googled recipe for baking cookies.
It'south a system dictated by market need, toll determinations, local regulations, the success of which is contingent upon everyone, from the production-designer, to the trash-thrower, to the waste product collector, to the recycling manufacturing plant worker.
Nosotros consumers play a much more critical role than we might imagine– depending on how we utilise our products and in what shape we throw them abroad, determines their value and quality postal service-utilise. Retrieve about it. Recycled appurtenances take to compete with new products in the market; who wants to buy something of lower quality?
I've spent the last 5 months talking to various experts in Taiwan, one of the world's innovators in recycling systems AND major producers of plastics, to put together this list. My hope is to bring more transparency to a organization inseparable from our very existence, but whose visibility often starts and stops at the trash can.
7 infographics represent to the 7 classifications of plastics and debunk common (mis)assumptions about plastics & recycling.
1. NOT ALL PLASTIC IS RECYCLABLE.
Plastic numberless– Non recyclable.
Straws– Not recyclable.
Coffee Cups– you need a special machine; without information technology, no.
Keyboards– maybe, if you get it to the correct person.
"Recycling" is adamant past two actually important things: the market and city authorities . Tweet this If there's a demand in the market, then recyclers and companies will pay for your post-consumer recyclables.
But without a market demand, those recyclables are virtually useless; placing them in the recycling bin won't make a divergence if you can't brand money off of them. If the demand isn't there, or the quality of the materials post-use is incurably dingy, they terminate up in landfill or incinerators.
Your local government also plays an essential role. Authorities regulations create market opportunities for companies to recycle legally-mandated products. But every municipality is different. Before y'all throw something away, bank check what your city actually recycles.
Public investment in recycling systems, moreover, is integral to their long-term sustainability and success. While the cost of purchasing a new slice of plastic is far cheaper than paying someone'southward bacon to manage and sort recyclables, the environmental cost is essentially greater. Subsidies, investments and public support go a long fashion.
Only because It has the recycling sign doesn't mean it Really gets recycled.
two. Not ALL PLASTIC IS CREATED EQUAL.
Plastics are classified into vii categories according to Resin Identification Codes (RIC). They are differentiated past the temperature at which the material has been heated, and their numerical classification (#1 – #7) only informs you what type of plastic information technology is. For example:
- #one (PET), ex: water bottles — highest recycling value; proceed out of the sun to prevent toxins leaking into the container (no bueno for your health).
- #seven (OTHER) is the grab-all category. It includes non-recyclables and corn-based plastics (PLA). (Equally a consumer, you can't tell the difference.)
What it doesn't tell you:
1. Wellness EFFECTS: plastic has been linked to disrupting hormonal growth and carcinogens. While its use is also associated with public hygiene and preventing bacteria contagion (many Taiwanese, for instance, use plastic straws to potable everything from beer to milk out of fear of a contaminated supply chain), consumers should be wary of chemicals leaching into food or potable products.
According to the Science History Institute, "[c]urrent health concerns focus on additives (such as bisphenol A [BPA] and a class of chemicals called phthalates) that become into plastics during the manufacturing process, making them more flexible, durable, and transparent."
Near experts hold that you lot should stay abroad from #iii PVC (often found in pipes) and #half dozen PS (Styrofoam, often used equally food/potable containers).
2. HOW IT'South MADE: Did you know that almost plastics originate from crude oil? Just plastics labeled PLA are fabricated from the sugars in corn or other plant-starches like cassava.
three. RECYCLABILITY: Oftentimes we just throw things away into the recycling bin with the total faith that theywill exist recycled but because the characterization says its recyclable. Merely that's not ever the case.
Moreover, there are 2 types of plastics: thermoset vs. thermoplastics. Thermoplastics are plastics that tin be re-melted and re-molded into new products, and therefore, recycled. However, thermoset plastics "comprise polymers that cross-link to form an irreversible chemical bond," significant that no matter how much estrus you utilise, they cannot be remelted into new material and hence, non-recyclable.
"while and then many plastic products are dispensable, plastic lasts forever in the surround. It was the plastics manufacture that offered recycling as a solution."
3. COFFEE CUPS CAN'T Actually BE RECYCLED.
Feel practiced in one case you lot finish your Starbucks and place that innocuous newspaper cup in the recycling bin? Well, it'southward a little more than complicated than that.
While the exterior of the cup is fabricated of paper, within is a thin layer of plastic. The PP (Polypropylene) picture protects the liquid from seeping into the paper (and thereby burning y'all) and keeps your warm drinkable from cooling too quickly.
Considering at that place are two different materials, the cups cannot be recycled unless the materials are separated, which is impossible to do by manus and requires a special machine.
That's why the easiest items to recycle are the products made from a single textile. Water bottles (100% PET plastic) are a prime instance of this.
Coffee cups are similar to the packaging enclosing snacks like health bars. Both are multi-layered, with each layer serving a particular purpose, e.one thousand. wax layer for the label, or the aluminum layer to prevent external heat from altering the chemical composition of the item before you purchase information technology.
This kind of design, still, makes recycling the product super difficult, especially since the layers are oftentimes very thin and stacked tightly on top of one some other. It'due south but not cost-effective and far as well time-consuming for a recycling mill to dissever and recycle each piece.
These layers are not visible to the naked middle, making it difficult to empathise THAT THE PRODUCT cannot be recycled Every bit IS.
4. You Tin can'T RECYCLE Dingy PLASTIC.
Got a little pizza sauce and cheesy goodness left on that pizza box? Now it tin't be recycled (you tin still compost it though!).
Any plastic material with food residues on (or in) it CANNOT be recycled. In guild for plastics to be transformed into recycled goods, they must exist of decent quality. So what to practise?
Launder FIRST, So RECYCLE.
Wash your plastics after every use, so they accept the chance to exist recycled into new material.
Remember, recycled materials (i.e. your trash) must compete with virgin materials in the market, so quality matters.
In Taiwan, there are several groups of people who sort trash, remove food remnants from bento boxes, and then transport the containers to the recycling factories (since the outside material is generally paper).
Some recycling factories so take these goods and wash them multiple times before they are cutting, reheated and transformed.
Merely most of the time, a "muddied" recyclable thrown into a public trash/recycling bin doesn't even have the hazard to end up at the recycling mill; information technology'southward determined useless (meaning either too troublesome, to clean, or non capable of generating income from) and lumped with all the other trash that ends up in landfill or the incinerator.
RINSE OUT AND Launder YOUR PLASTICS Before You lot RECYCLE THEM. Articulate ALL FOOD RESIDUALS TO GUARANTEE THEY Take A SHOT OF MAKING It TO THE RECYCLING FACTORY.
5. RECYCLING PLASTIC DOWNGRADES ITS QUALITY.
First, it'south important to know that plastics are simply polymers, long bondage of atoms "arranged in repeating units often much longer than those institute in nature."
According to the Science History Institute, the "length of these chains, and the patterns in which they are arranged, are what make polymers potent, lightweight, and flexible. In other words, it's what makes them and thenplastic."
Every fourth dimension plastic is recycled, the polymer chain grows shorter, Then ITS QUALITY DECREASES.
The aforementioned slice of plastic tin can only be recycled well-nigh 2-3 times before its quality decreases to the betoken where information technology can no longer be used.
Additionally, each time plastic is recycled, additional virgin material is added to assistance "upgrade" its quality, so that the recycled product has a fighting chance in the market against new, durable and fresh appurtenances. So when you read the label "recycled fabric," think twice almost what the word "recycled" actually means in that context.
vi. Glass AND METAL CAN BE RECYCLED INFINITELY.
You read that right. Dissimilar plastic, glass and metal (including aluminum) tin be recycled infinitely without losing quality or purity in the product. Tweet this At that place's no need to add additional virgin material in the recycling process– recycling glass and metal is the ultimate class of circular economy, the process of using so reusing materials without generating any waste. (Jump Puddle Drinking glass Co. Ltd., a glass recycling and innovation company based in Taiwan, is an excellent instance of this.)
So then why did we make the switch to plastic? Dasdy Lin, Sustainability Consultant at the Plastics Manufacture Evolution Center (PIDC), shared these three reasons:
Global transportation shipping costs
Condom – consistency and stability of products without risk of breaking
Profit
"Say for instance, I ship 100 bottles and in the end, I only receive 98 considering 2 bankrupt. That's capital loss. But plastic rarely breaks.Plus, if nosotros are looking at life-cycle assessment, it will probably take more energy to ship the glass bottles than the plastic ones considering drinking glass is heavier. Theweight difference will consequence in the consumption of more fuel during transportation.So the negative environmental consequence is more fuel-burning, which results in more pollution."
7. "THE EVERYTHING ELSE" CATEGORY.
The side by side time you use a plastic product, flip it over and cheque the bottom. If y'all see #seven in the eye of a three-arrowed triangle, you have no way of knowing for certain whether its recyclable or non-recyclable (even plastics industry people and recyclers can't tell sometimes).
#seven is the "other" put-everything-else-that-is-not-#1-6 category. It includes both non-recyclable and "biodegradable" plastics. Tweet this Polylactic acid (PLA), for example, is a #7 plastic. It is made from plant-starch instead of petroleum, and therefore, marketed as "biodegradable." (For your reference, most constructed plastics come from crude oil.)
I use quotations here because it'southward important to know that current biodegradable products tin can but decompose if they are sent to a special factory, where the temperature and humidity is specially controlled, and lumped together with other compostable plastics. (If those plastics are thrown into landfill and mixed in with other trash, information technology doesn't matter if they're compostable or not. They're non going back into nature if they're stuck in between layers of other waste.)
Another example of a #7 plastic is melamine, a non-recyclable plastic used often in food containers like bowls. Its claim to fame: its durability and being dish-washer safe. In Taiwan, melamine can exist spotted in nighttime markets (beware pink bowls the next time you want to try some pork over rice 滷肉飯 (lu rou fan)). Co-ordinate to Dasdy Lin, you tin can't recycle melamine because it is a thermoset plastic: "information technology won't melt over again- the merely style is to incinerate it."
We live in a plastic era.
From the clothes we clothing to the food we eat, plastic has become a household staple for families and communities around the world. Given its prominence, and the fact that scientists estimate it takes somewhere betwixt 450 -1,000 years to decompose (some argue information technology will never decompose), it is essential for us to empathise this material.
Only powered by cognition can we take the necessary deportment to transform our relationship with plastic and protect our families, communities & the environs.
*Special thanks to Cory Howell for all the incredible sketches used in the infographics!
** Thank you also to Nate Maynard,Consultant at the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), for cross-checking the information in a higher place and providing some of the linked bookish resources!
Source: https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/