Recycling Plastic
June 29th, 2009 | 
Plastic is a very common material that is now widely used by everybody in this world. Plastic is used in many ways as it is light weight and compact. The maintenance that is required is very less. Common plastic items that are used are bags, bottles, containers and food packages. Whenever you buy grocery, food or any other item from any store you will use plastic bags for carrying them.
The plastic material has many advantages. They are especially very useful for packaging foods as the plastic items are durable, safe and cheap. The ease of use of plastic items has made plastic a great success. The great problem with plastic is its disposal. Plastic is made of polymer chemicals and they are not bio degradable. This means that plastic will not decompose when it is buried. When plastic is burnt it emits harmful chemicals. Though plastic is a very useful material that is flexible, robust and rigid they become waste after their use and they pollute the atmosphere.
To protect the environment as well as to take advantage of plastic, recycling procedure is used. Plastic can be recycled and new products can be formed from waste plastic. Though all types of plastic cannot be recycled a considerable portion can be recycled so that the environment is protected. Plastic recycling involves the process of recovering scrap plastics and these waste plastics are then reprocessed to form new materials that may be different from their original state.
Recycling plastic has many advantages. The use of non renewable fossil fuels is reduced by recycling plastic as manufacturing new plastic materials require more of these fuels. The consumption of energy is also reduced as already prepared plastic are recycled for new use. The amount of plastic that reach the landfill sites are greatly reduced by recycling. This will eliminate land pollution to some extent. The carbon emissions are reduced by recycling plastic as manufacturing units emit more carbon..
Compared to other materials like glass and metal, recycling of plastic is expensive and complex. This is due to the high molecular weight of the large polymer chains that build the plastic material. Heating plastic doesn’t dissolve he polymer chains and hence a tedious and complex process is essential.
Different types of plastic cannot be mixed together for recycling because they phase separate. Such a resulting melting product cannot be recycled to make another plastic product. While making plastic product many fillers like dues and other additives are used. These fillers cannot be separated from the plastic using inexpensive techniques. This makes the recycling process more complex.
The common process that is used in recycling plastic is the inverse polymerization process where the polymers in the plastic are converted into initial monomers that were used in the manufacture. These chemicals are then purified and synthesized to form new plastic materials. Assorted polymers are converted into petroleum in another recycling process. The advantage of this process is that any mix of polymers can be used. A new recycling process generates heat from the friction of plastic materials which melts the plastics. This is then pumped into casting moulds. The great advantage of this technique is that all types of plastics can be recycled.
To aid the recycling process, plastics come with plastic identification code to identify the different polymers that are used in the manufacture of plastic. The recycling process must be started from home. When you have utilized that plastic item for its use you can use the same item for some other use. For example, if you buy a juice bottle you can use the plastic bottle as a storage container for reusing the pet bottle. Also everybody must be aware of the recycling plant in the locality and must produce the waste plastic to the plant for recycling.
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