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,
• washed
• and melted.

Yes, all this processing uses energy, but still less than the amount used in creating plastic (a petroleum product) from scratch. Once the plastic is melted, the liquid is forced through an extruder to create long strands, (like spaghetti!), cooled, and cut into pellets. The pellets then become the basis for any “new” plastic product. There are many familiar products made from recycled plastics. It only takes five 2-liter plastic bottles to make one recycled ski jacket. Over half the polyester carpet in the US is made from recycled plastic! (Source: Pinellas County Utilities).

Additional Resource
http://livinggreen.ifas.ufl.edu/waste/recycling.html