Water Bottle Recycling


The Water Bottle Recycling Process

 

   

We’ve all been encouraged to recycle plastic bottles after finishing the contents, and nowhere is this more stressed than with water bottles. It has been widely discussed that drinking at least eight cups of water a day is healthy for you, but unfortunately, this also means that there are now more plastic bottles out there than ever before. But what exactly happens to a water bottle when it leaves your home and goes to the recycling center? Moreover, can all types of plastic be recycled together?

What are the different types of plastic?

Most water bottles are made from a resin called polyethylene terephthalate, more commonly referred to as PET (sometimes PETE). This type of plastic, labeled with a 1, makes up juice and soft drink bottles as well as water bottles. The plants that process the recycling of these bottles often process them with another type of plastic, high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, which is labeled with the number 2. HDPE makes up containers such as detergent bottles or milk jugs. Along with Types 1 and 2, there are five other types of plastic:

·         #3: PVC (polyvinyl chloride)

Example: plastic pipes, plastic food wrap

·         #4: LDPE (low-density polyethylene)

      Example: grocery bags, squeezable bottles

·         #5: PP (polypropylene)

Example: medicine bottles, yogurt containers

·         #6: PS (polystyrene)

Example: plastic silverware, Styrofoam peanuts

·         #7: Other

Example: Tupperware, reusable water bottles

These following plastics make up everything from food wrap and plastic bags to Styrofoam peanuts and other food containers. Unfortunately, however, there is currently no market for recycling plastic Types 3 through 7.

 

Recycling water bottles (refer to Figure 1.1)

Once Type 1 or 2 plastic bottles are collected and brought to a recycling center, they are compounded into bales, or thousand pound blocks. Often, other companies, called reclaimers, purchase the blocks, which are then processed in countries such as China, where the bottles are separated by hand. This is among the first steps in water bottle recycling, which includes debaling and pre-washing. Pre-washing ensures that the liquids which are left over in the bottles are removed.

 

Next, any labels that are on the bottles are scraped off, and the bottles are then moved to a machine which crushes them into small plastic flakes. These flakes are separated from the plastic caps in a process known as gravity separation by water.

 

Gravity separation works by placing all the ground-up plastic (flakes and caps) into large vats of water. Because the caps are made up of a different type of plastic than the actual bottles themselves, they float, while the plastic bottle flakes sink to the bottom. Any remaining plastic labels also rise to the surface of the water, allowing for easy separation.

 

 

 

 

What’s next?

After the plastic flakes are separated from the caps, they are then re-washed in a hot solution, which further cleans and sanitizes them. The last step is re-pelletization, where the plastic flakes are heated and formed into—you guessed it—a pellet. In this form, the opportunities are endless. These pellets, called recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or RPET, can be made into many new items. The National Association for PET Container Resources, or NAPCOR, identifies many uses for RPET including, but not limited to:

We can see that recycled plastics bottles create products that are not only environmentally friendly, but useful as well.

Note: Though the water bottle recycling process is relatively inexpensive, it usually occurs overseas because companies are not paid very much for the RPET pellets. When the demand for products made from recycled plastic goes up, the prices paid to companies for their RPET product should go up as well.

     Some products of the recycling process:

 

 

Figure 1.1: The Water Bottle Recycling Flowchart

         

 

 

For more information on PET recycling

NAPCOR – The National Association for PET Container Resources

http://www.napcor.com/index.html

Designboom.com – Talks about the different kinds of plastic, recycling, and what happens afterward http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/pet/recycling.html

NPR – “For Empty Water Bottles, There's an Afterlife,” An article about the life of a water bottle

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10874230

High Country Conservation Center – Discusses the different kinds of plastic many companies will and will not accept

http://www.highcountryconservation.org/