15 years: Ocean conservationist
The answers to the question you’ve always wondered - how does plastic actually get recycled? Why are some types of plastic accepted by your local authority and some aren’t? Never fear, Vincent Kneefel is here to walk you through the varying kinds of plastic and the main types of plastic recycling.
The answers to the question you’ve always wondered - how does plastic actually get recycled? Why are some types of plastic accepted by your local authority and some aren’t? Never fear, Vincent Kneefel is here to walk you through the varying kinds of plastic and the main types of plastic recycling.
Plastic resin codes are a set of numbers that instantly identify what sort of plastic a product is made of. The lower the resin code, the more probable the plastic type will be easily recyclable. The two main methods of plastic recycling are mechanical recycling (recovering plastic waste by mechanical processes such as sorting, washing, drying, grinding, re-granulating and compounding) and advanced recycling (which uses thermochemical reactions to break plastics down into completely new products such as new monomers, new polymers, fuel, energy and other commodities). Fundamentally however, we should be following a waste hierarchy, with prevention of new plastics at the top and disposal as a very last resort.
Key learning objectives:
Identify the different plastic resin codes
Understand the benefits of recycling
Outline the two main types of plastic recycling
Assess the waste hierarchy