Recycling plastics and building materials

28 Feb, 2017

Recycling plastics and building materials

Posted by: Geoff Davis In: Building materials|Green building|materials|Plastic|Recycling

We have a large green building section in this website. There have been a lot of stories about plastics ending up in the oceans, polluting and killing birds and animals. See our green building section here >

Plastic recycling

One issue is that plastic is itself a recycled byproduct of the oil industry. This means it is very cheap, almost free, so gets used everywhere, and more and more. For instance, individual pears and fruits are now routinely packed in clear plastic. All this waste ends up somewhere.
Another issue is the plastic nodules that are the start point for injection moulding (I once worked in a plastics factory, a very unhealthy place!). These are tiny and get lost all over the supply chain, and they are so tiny (1-2mm) they are impossible to clean up. They just get in the water system and end up in the seas.

Finally a way has been made to recycle two of the most used plastics which do not blend together, so have currenlty to be sorted and recycled separately. A new chemical can be added to the materials so they will mix, so don’t need sorting out, saving a lot of effort.
Of course this has yet to happen, and is only for new plastic, when they get aroind to it.
Read more about the new plastic additions here (new page) >

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