my 4 year old wants to know what they turn the plastic bottles and aluminum cans into after we recycle them??
I read recently that recycled plastic bottles make fleece material - i.e. jumpers and cardies for winter-wear, amongst other things. The same article said that ali cans can end up in car manufacturing. Your little one might find both answers helpful in understading that recycling is very valuable. x
Our local Council collects any plastic (1) or (2) for recycling. Both plastic milk bottles and their tops come into this category so there must a market out there somewhere. Sixty years ago there were collection yards where anyone could take their rags and bones (metal, etc) to sell. My mother was a tailoress working from home, and the wool cloth trimmings were a good source of extra pocket money for me. We still have a weekly rag bone man touring our streets and collecting scrapped metal household equipment but not plastic. It could be that plastic recyling points are only interested in buying by the ton.
Plastic bags are made from non-renewable petroleum resources. Plastics can be recycled, but not as easily as glass, aluminum or paper. Part of the problem of recycling plastic bags stems from the fact that bags may be made from one of several plastic types. Although two plastic items may look similar, they could be made from different types of resins. This makes separating plastics for recycling difficult. The plastic industry has begun to address this problem by coding plastics with numbers to help consumers and recycling processors identify the type of resin used in production. Some plastic bags have resin codes imprinted on them. However, for the most part, plastic must be recycled into a product for non food use. For example, plastic soda bottles cannot be recycled into new bottles. They can be recycled into products such as bathtubs, flower pots, parking lot car stops, toys, and trash cans.
Good okorder /... More people need to be aware just how serrious the problem is becoming with the shear amount of our plastic polution. ~Garnet Homesteading/Farming over 20 years
The plastic is melted down and some new plastic is added to it so that it keeps its consistency, after that it can be pretty much turned into anything, inlcuding more plastic bottles
