Modern Plastic Life

Using a plastic bag? A bottle of water? A computer? Or even a life saver air bag?

Imagine, if all this disappears.

Plastics are honoured for the numerous phases of modern life that each individual enjoys in today’s world. Be it sports, leisure activities, communication, safety and security, electronics, name any, the world is incomplete without it.

This industry manufactures polymer materials. The industry offers bountiful benefits to the people all over the world. It covers a range of industries right from the food industry, our very basic need, to the packaging and transportation, building and construction, aerospace, health care industry and many more. The services offered by this industry to the various facets of life are indispensable and quite essentials in the present world generation.

Recycling, which is a life saver of the future, is one main characteristic feature of this workable Industry. The process came to recognition during the environmental revolution of the late 1960s. The first recycling mill for waste Techniques was originally built it Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, which started functioning in 1972.

Here, the recycling refers to a process where the waste plastic is reprocessed to a useful product. The processed final product can be in several forms different from its original state. The processes to recycle are of varied types like Thermal depolymerisation, Heat compression and so on.

The procedure begins with sorting the items by their resin content. The plastic is sorted based on the type or on the colour. Once sorted, they are chopped into small pieces and chunks. These pieces are further cleaned to remove debris like paper labels, residue from the inside, dirt, dust and any other small contaminants.

After the cleaning process, the pieces are melted and compressed into tiny pellets called nurdles. In this state, the pellets are ready to be reused and designed into complete new and different products. In such industry, the recycled is hardly used to create the same or identical plastic item of its former self.

The fact that producing recycled plastic does not reduce the very need for virgin plastic. However, the recycling can reduce consumption of natural environmental resources like timber and several other products.

Common recycled Plastics are:

1.  Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET, PETE)  Commonly used in soft drinks, butter jars water etc.
2.   High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Commonly used in Milk, juice, water bottles, trash and retail bags.
3. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Commonly used in cling films and PVC piping.
4.  Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Commonly used in frozen food bags, freezable bottles and flexible contained lids.

According to a report from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates 5.6 million metric tons of Plastic waste annually, with Delhi generating the most of it at municipality at 689.5 metric tons almost every day.

Any kind of help that saves the environment is worth doing. Recycling in this industry has come a long way since the beginning and continues to help reduce the amount of waste in our vicinity.

Use, recycle and re-use, are the golden phrases for our future generations.