The manufacturing industry and the plastic industry had a strong connection since the end of World War 2 with plastic substituting rubber and other materials with shortage. Since the 1940s plastic has almost become irreplaceable in the industry with more advancements and new resins that bought better results.
Today, plastic is a huge factor in mankind’s technological advancements. However, plastic being one of the most widely used non-biodegradable materials on the planet has filled dumps and landfills bringing about catastrophic damages to the planet’s ecosystem. This problem has its roots predominantly in neglect in the recycling advancements concerning plastics. We see advancements in this field being more industrialized and popular but the industry faces problems with the unawareness of the public about the steps to recycle plastic. This could even start with smaller steps like earning an amount by selling the plastic waste to the recycling plant. These plants make your recycled plastic back to materials that can be molded. You can learn more about molding here.
So now let us help you make the change:
Recycling by type
The first step to successful plastic recycling is the understanding that plastic is by itself a really wide term, and for recycling plastic it must be segregated according to its material and type.
Understanding the type of plastic
How do we understand which type of plastic we have? It is made easier by the plastic manufacturers as they assign a ‘plastic type’ seal with numeric codes of up to 7 which are usually marked inside the arrows set in a triangle. The 7 basic categories are classified on the basis of different resins and material types used to make the different types of plastic.
They are as follows:
- Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE)
- High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
- Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polystyrene (PS)
- Other
If you are looking at a large quantity of a plastic material that you don’t know the type,
We list common industrial plastic wastes which are often overlooked because of the notion that plastic recycling is limited to plastic bottles and food packaging.
So here are some of the main industrial plastic wastes probably lying around your units.
- LDPE Film (stretch wrap, sheet film, clean plastic bags)
- PET Pallet Banding
- Super Sacks
- PP/PE Packaging
- Kraft Poly-lined Bags (the poly liner is usually recyclable plastic while the Kraft is paper)
- Plastic Drums and Buckets
- HDPE Belting and Tooling
- Miscellaneous PPE Gear
If you still have your doubts about some of plastics that you don’t understand or don’t know, among the wastes that are around your plants, the best step will be to talk to an industrial plastic recycler for an inspection.