What is recycling?
Recycling is the process of separating, collecting, processing, marketing, and reusing materials that would have otherwise been thrown away. When a product has been recycled and reused as a new product, the usage loop has been closed. For example, glass is 100% recyclable and can be used over an ...
- How are plastic bottles recycled?
Americans use about 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour, and thankfully many of these are recycled. But what happens to the bottle once it is sent for recycling? The bottles are shredded into tiny flakes, processed in a flotation tank to remove contaminants (such as labels), heated ...
- How is aluminum recycled?
According to the Environmental Defense Fund, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Aluminum is one of the most quickly recycled of commonly collected products. An aluminum can may be back on the shelf, full of your favorite beve ...
- How is glass recycled?
In the U.S., approximately 13.2 million tons of glass waste are generated annually and about 22% of all glass beverage containers are recycled. In Germany, 40% of glass is recycled. The process begins with glass (usually sorted by color) being crushed into tiny pieces (cullet); mixed with sand, ...
- How is paper recycled?
Paper is shredded, mixed with water (pulped), cleaned, screened (to remove contaminants such as plastic windows on envelopes), flattened on wire screens, and dried. Paper can normally be recycled 5-7 times before it loses strength. Paper is the #1 item we throw away in the United States; about o ...
