How do recycling plants separate different types of plastics?
April 17th, 2010
Better yet, how do recycling plants separate the different materials. I know that if you were to mix two different types of plastics, that they would not be able to be re-used(even though I heard of a new technology where someone was able to mix two different types of plastics to form a super strong one). How do they separate plastics 1-5 and number 7? Also, how do they separate the adhesives and other materials on recyclable products like glass and plastic bottles?
Posted in Green Tips
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Tags: adhesives, different materials, glass and plastic bottles, new technology, plants, plastics, recyclable products, strong one
If you’re talking about a municipal Materials Recovery Facility, for example, they usually just do it by hand. Plastics are the most problematic recyclables as far as contamination – a lot of plastic loads are sent to landfills or burned because of that.
The adhesives and labels are soaked off in hot water. Glass is usually not recycled anymore as it is too expensive to transport – here they use it in building roads. Plastics, depending on the type, can tolerate some adhesive contamination as they are melted and pressed into structural materials like those plastic benches you see. Few plastics are able to be remanufactured into the same item it came from, unlike glass or aluminum.
DK