Plastic Recycling Essay

652 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Review of related literature about plastic waste

Recycling means collecting and sorting waste for the purpose of producing new products. In Malaysia, the recycling program was officially introduced on December 2, 2000 and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (ministry) has determined that the 11 November of each year as National Recycling Day. Recycling process involves a variety of solid waste including plastic. Plastics is the solid waste that cannot be decomposed, so the recycling process of this material can help reduce the quantities of solid wastes in landfill and reduce the pollution of water and air. This material needs to go through several phase of process before it become new grade of plastic in suitable format. In general, plastic recycling process can be classified into five stages which are sorting, washing, shredding, identify and classify, and extruding (refer to Figure 1 Appendix 1).
The first stages of plastic recycling process are sorting this material. There are two sources of plastics, “plastics for recycling come from two main sources: post consumer plastics and post industrial plastics”(Wansbrough, n.a, p. 4). Post consumer plastics is unused plastics that are collected either in garbage bins on the street or in the recycling bin. While the post industrial plastics is the unused plastics from industry such as off cuts or damaged batches. Then, this material will be collected by the recycling company and will be taken to a recycling plant for restructuring activities. At this stage, the plastic will be divided according to the criteria of manufacturing a chemical composition. Plastic cannot be directly recycled for manufacturing consists of a variety of materials including polymer composition and sulfur. This plastic will then be classified accordi...

... middle of paper ...

...rotating in hoper will rip the plastic into small waste for further process.
In conclusion, there are five stages of plastic recycling process and the material needs to go through this process to be in suitable format for reuse. Sorting, washing, shredding, identify and classify, and extruding the plastics can make the plastics safe for reuse by consumers. Plastics recycling have brought many advantages to people by preserving the environment as plastic waste impacted very significantly to the natural environment. This cycle is very important in reducing the production of natural resources leading to environmental degradation. It also helps to reduce the number of plastic bottles wasted which will undoubtedly pollute the environment and our lives. All in all, recycling plastic can help in maintaining the conservation and preservation of nature towards the better.

Show More
Related

  • Persuasive Essay On Plastics

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    The government wants to put a price on plastic bags 5-10 cents.While some agree with this movement other don’t. & the people who don’t wanna agree with it wanna get rid of plastic bags for good as a plastic bag ban. They have many reasons for why they don’t want plastic bags anymore but so do the people who want plastic bags & to add a fee for having them. We’re just giving our pure opinion of what we think about the movement, we are supporting why our opinions & telling how either the movements will affect us as a community negatively or positively.We both disagree therefore we will have to support what we say & why we say it with evidence from a source that will help us explain and persuade the government that this movement is either a good

    Read More

  • To What Exetent Does Recycling Decrease the Carbon Footprint

    3211 Words  | 7 Pages

    The recycling process of plastic begins at the recycling department wherever it may be located. The plastics are categorized according to plastic type. Plastic is then separated by color, the plastic is sterilized then crushed and chopped into plastic flakes. The plastic flakes are then melted and stirred. As a result of the stirring and melting a thick liquid is produced. This thick liquid is processed and spun into fiber strands that could be used for making fleec...

    Read More

  • The Recycling Controversy

    2100 Words  | 5 Pages

    Are policies that force recycling necessary to reduce the effects of the global warming despite the high cost of recycling in comparison to the other methods of waste management? Recycling is a controversy that has become known due to the recent pressure caused by scientific evidence of global warming. At this point recycling is mainly seen as a positive because it has proven to improve our ecological footprint. However there is a negative to recycling, which has been mapped out and described in various articles: this has been viewed as the ‘myth’ of recycling. In this controversy there are two extremes; one feels policies are not necessary for recycling, the other feels policies are necessary to recycle. The gray area in the middle of these extremes shows a mixture of each of the extremist’s ideologies. This controversy pertains to the policies and ideologies that were implemented to increase recycling efforts, and that became an issue when money was consistently being spent to recycle during the recent recession. These policies were implemented from the ideologies of two major positions each supporting whether it is necessary or unnecessary to recycle in regards to global warming and cost.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Recycling

    1810 Words  | 4 Pages

    The words ‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’ are what a person chants if someone mentions the word recycling. Nicks J defines recycling as ‘[T]he processing of waste materials in order to make them reusable” (11). Individuals who recycle are not just throwing papers in green bins, or cans in blue; in fact, they are helping the environment more than they can imagine. People who want to preserve and protect their planet take the initiative to recycle waste materials. Rather than throwing away old plastic or glass bottles, aluminum cans, and certain types of paper, one can simply recycle them, and they will go through a cleaning and the remanufacturing process to be remade into a new usable item.

    Read More

  • Film Review: Bag It By Susan Beraza

    1858 Words  | 4 Pages

    Today’s unprecedented technological advancement has accelerated the pace at which everyone is living. Time becomes a limited resource that every person tries to make the most use of. Therefore, convenience is the major quality highly valued in today’s world. Plastics strongly demonstrate such quality; plastics are light-weighted and disposable. Consequently, the use of plastics is prevalent, from simple objects, such as bags and bottles, to more complex components, such as computer boards. The benefits of plastics are countless; for instance, plastics are disposable and waterproof. However, many critics have raised questions regarding the threats posed by phenomenal plastics. What are the downsides of plastics? How should we cope with the plastic pollution around the globe? Susan Beraza has the answers to

    Read More

  • Importance Of Recycling And Recycling

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plastic has an extreme impact on the environment. Trash, consisting of paper or organic waste, decomposes after a while, unlike plastic in which one plastic bottle takes from 450 up to 1000 years to decompose. Considering that the United States produces over 300 million tons of plastic a year, most of which is only used once and then thrown away, it is clear that pollution will become worse each year. It becomes even more shocking when this number is put in other terms; 300 million tons of plastic is comparable to the weight of all the adults living on the planet. By not

    Read More

  • Understanding and Categorizing Solid Waste in India

    1680 Words  | 4 Pages

    properly carried out there is possibility of toxic material entering the stream of SOLID WASTE.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Recycling

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many people believe that we should not recycle anymore, but this is not the case. We, the people of the world, need to continue to recycle because we do not want our children to grow up in a world where there are no certain species of animals due to recycling failures. We also do not want our children to grow up thinking that it is okay that they throw their garbage on the ground, and not have to pick it up. We need to teach our children that they need to take care of the earth that they are living on, because they only get one. Recycling is one of the most beneficial environmental issues that we have here on this earth. Recycling saves energy, limits pollution and supports several environmental factors of the economy. “In 2003, the savings from recycling 54 billion aluminum cans exceeded the energy equivalent of 15 million barrels of crude oil- or the amount of gas the U.S. uses in one day,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA estimates that 200 million gallons of used oil are not disposed of properly, and if we were to dispose the oil properly then we could keep the oil from polluting the ground and the fresh water source. According to E. Takatori, “… While on-going societal regulation treats material recycling as the dominant cycle, the properties of recycled plastic remain the most port

    Read More

  • Balancing Plastic Usage and Environmental Sustainability

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, the plastics have shown to generate more damage to the environment in the long-term than any other sources of energy. So, it becomes our responsibility to preserve the environment creating mass awareness. The practice of bio-plastics are an environment friendly method, which doesn’t use the landfills while recycling and deposition, but it is also not that convenient method because the cost of manufacturing bio-plastics are much higher than ordinary method. This directly indicates that the cost of minimizing the waste, the cost of human health and environmental pollution is much higher than the production of

    Read More

  • Plastic Pollution and its Consequences

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... converting plastic waste into useful products are being affected by pollution; this contamination is found within containers where plastics are collected. But the same risk of pollution carries downside consequences in which workers and people responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the plastic materials are not doing the best to eliminate plastic waste, and to disinfect the infected bacteria and microorganisms from the atmosphere and environment. Organizations from China and India are the largest in the world, they collect and purchase used plastic from United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America (Minguez 2013). These companies do not bother to sanitize the products before the recycling process; for this reason the planet earth is getting a worse environmental condition, and it is destroying lives of living beings, and natural resources as well (Uddin 2014).

    Read More

  • Essays On Recycling

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    Recycling. What does this word mean to you? Do you recycle? Do you support or oppose the act of it? What is written in the following paragraphs may or may not help you make this one special planet in our solar system we call Earth; the only planet scientists know supports life. Recycling benefits many aspects of life. Recycling benefits the aesthetics of our daily environment, it makes our family and friends safer from sickness, it boosts our economy, and it allows us to make more use of the limited natural nonrenewable resources we have on our earth. Recycling will benefit life by reducing our environmental impact, preventing injury, boosting the economy, and extending the use we can make can make out of our resources.

    Read More

  • recycling plastic

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    from different resins. In order to recycle plastics, the different types must be kept separate.

    Read More

  • Recycling Paper in teh United Arab Emirates

    1576 Words  | 4 Pages

    Recycling is such a fantastic way for us to reuse the waste we once throw. Yet, not everything is easy to be done in this world. There many difficulties that face recycling process economically and socially. Usually In order to recycle, waste paper needs to be sorted and treated from any Impurities. Which means that companies will loss finance because there must be someone or something that could sort or treat these papers. Another problem is that to start recycling, companies needs a lot of good recyclable supply to pick it up; after all, they need good economic benefits (Problems with Recycling, 2014). According to the Waste and Resources Action Program, there are some barriers p...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Recycling Plastic

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    One huge aspect of recycling is that it gives the recycler the fulfillment of helping the environment. W. Kip Viscusi a professor at Vanderbilt University said, “The warm glow environmental benefit that a person receives from recycling will be greater for those who place a higher value on the environment .” Therefore, the benefit of helping our environment is the greatest benefit of all. Although it might seem as if plastic is thrown away than it can not harm the environment, however, that is incorrect. Plastic is not biodegradable, therefore, it will never be able to completely decompose into the earth. With plastic not being able to decompose it takes up a large amount of space while also being capable of traveling through the air. Sati Manrich, the author of Plastic Recycling said, “The mounting volume of plastic residues, coupled with their extremely low biodegradability, generated a serious problem regarding the amount of space they took up.” Therefore, when plastic is thrown away it will last for at least four-hundred and fifty years before degrading in the landfills; thus allowing all the plastic that was thrown away in the last four-hundred and fifty years to start a stockpile in the landfills or even travel somewhere else.(Manrich

    Read More

  • Essay On Importance Of Recycling

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Therefore, many countries in the developed world have adopted recycling policies for disposal Of waste. The benefits of the recycling process include the following. Maintaining the cleanliness of the environment in the first place from the damage of burying and burning the waste or leaving it exposed Reduce the pollution of sea, ocean and river waters from dumping solid waste, threaten marine life, and reduce groundwater pollution from the waste of

    Read More

More about Plastic Recycling Essay

Open Document