Interestingly, recycling plastic bottles also reduces water consumption, as new water bottles require six times the amount of water they contain to produce. 75% less energy is consumed for each bottle, with some estimates suggesting that this process can create the energy savings equivalent to taking 360,000 cars off the road. The energy savings from recycling plastic bottles is significant, and while this doesn’t necessarily help end-of-life issues when the bottle is trashed, it does help reduce the resources used during manufacture. Recycled bottles use 75% less energy to produce than new ones Not only does this use less energy and fewer resources than making those products with virgin plastic, but it also diverts bottles away from landfill, keeping resources in the loop and trash out of a hole in the ground! This recycled material is found in a wide range of products, including new water bottles, polyester carpet fiber, t-shirts, upholstery, industrial strapping and fiberfill for sleeping bags. PET (or PETE) is the virgin plastic which water bottles are made of, however, when PET is recycled, it is known as rPET, rePET or rPETE. Recycled bottles can be found in a wide range of products For example, there are recycling programs running in several US states, (such as California, Massachusetts and Wisconsin) which either encourage, or make mandatory, the commercial recycling of plastic bottles and other waste products. There are many benefits to recycling plastic bottles and, across the globe, governments are taking steps to encourage both business and consumers to do this. Many governments are encouraging people and businesses to recycle plastic bottles across the world These pellets then act as the raw material for the production of new plastic goods, including new water bottles! The recycling process has several stages collecting bottles from a central location, then shredding them with other PET products, melting the shreds down, and reforming them into pellets. This is an ideal material for making single-use water bottles as it is strong, lightweight, and is a type-1 plastic, which means it can be easily recycled. Most of the plastic bottles available for retail purchase are made from PET, or polyethylene terephthalate. So, to help you grasp some of the issues surround single-use plastic bottle use and disposal, and what the future might look like without them, here we look at a few interesting plastic bottle recycling facts.Īlmost all plastic bottles can be easily recycled To do this, first we need to truly understand the scale of the problem and how existing infrastructure attempts to deal with it, as well as alternatives to this destructive and resources intensive product. Effectively recycling our bottles and making bottles from recycled materials are both effective ways to do this but reducing our reliance on these single-use products is, far and away, the most important action we can take. However, both businesses and consumers alike can take steps to mitigate the problems caused by plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are ubiquitous found in grocery stores, supermarkets, homes and offices, on streets and in oceans, they have a convoluted lifecycle, and their production and eventual disposal has significant environmental impacts. The complexity of these systems of production is exemplified perfectly by the plastic bottle, and maintaining a conscientious relationship with this particular product is seriously problematic. However, as the world around us becomes increasingly interconnected and complex, undertaking meaningful environmental education becomes increasingly difficult. Understanding where the products we buy come from, and what to do with them when we are finished, is one of the fundamental pillars of sustainability.
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