Final Up to date on February 12, 2024
There’s a number of discourse within the zero waste group about recycled plastic. Once I first began going zero waste, each actually and the weblog, I hyper targeted on plastic in an enormous means. I wished to stay a very plastic free life-style, even a life-style freed from recycled plastic, however then I began studying much more about recycled plastic supplies, emissions, and looking out on the greater image.
Recycled plastic merchandise positively have their place in a sustainable life-style. Recycled plastic materials is far more eco pleasant than sourcing uncooked supplies. Shopping for merchandise made from eco pleasant plastic is handy for shoppers trying to cut back their waste with out having to decide to utterly reusable gadgets. So what can plastic be recycled into? Learn on to seek out out!
This put up was sponsored by Rhyme & Motive. All ideas and opinions are my very own. For extra data, please see my disclosure coverage.
recycled plastic merchandise
One in every of my favourite issues about sustainability is that it’s nuanced. It appears like I can study one thing new every day as science evolves and as I proceed to study extra.
After doing fairly a little bit of analysis into uncooked supplies, what I’ve discovered is that recycled content material actually is far more eco-friendly than virgin supplies. Yep, even recycled plastics.
For instance, Rhyme & Motive is a hair care model that actually pushes the boundaries with regards to sustainability. They provide hair care merchandise in 100% put up client recycled supplies — together with the cap (a world first). They went with a plastic bottle so it could possibly be squeezed to keep away from the necessity for a pump.
Pumps are produced from so many alternative supplies that they’re unrecyclable. By choosing recycled plastic merchandise, they have been in a position to mould their bottles into rectangles. The sq. form makes the pack 20% more room environment friendly than a spherical bottle, serving to to cut back emissions from transport.
why I help recycled plastics:
There may be a lot plastic on the earth — we ought to be turning it into one thing. The truth is, we shouldn’t be utilizing any virgin plastic! In spite of everything, probably the most eco pleasant plastic is the one which already exists.
And if we’re going to complain about solely 9% of plastics ever being recycled, then wouldn’t we wish to help individuals who’re working to spice up that quantity?
The very fact is with regards to emissions, plastic is lighter to ship than glass and far more eco-friendly than strip mining for metals. My pal Shelbi did an important YouTube video on this the place you’ll be able to study extra.
information on recycled plastics:
Recycling is price efficient and good for the surroundings as a result of it conserves the fossil gas (aka crude oil) used to fabricate it.
Useful resource extraction for virgin plastic supplies has an extremely excessive carbon footprint. For plastic, most of it’s derived from oil drilling and/or fracking.
Ethane cracker services flip ethane into ethylene, a constructing block in commonest plastics. Nonetheless, these services are related to main local weather detriments.
Once we use recycled plastic, we reduce down on the quantity of crude oil that must be extracted from the earth unsustainably.
The truth is, in keeping with the Affiliation of Plastic Recyclers (APR), utilizing recycled plastic merchandise reduces vitality consumption and greenhouse gasoline emissions. The report seems to be at three resins — PET, HDPE, and PP — and it concludes that recycled plastic decreased complete vitality consumption by 79% for PET, 88% for HDPE, and 88% for PP.
Recycled resin additionally reduce emissions over virgin materials by 67% for PET, 71% for HDPE, and 71% for PP. Think about what number of emissions we’d save if each product was compelled to make use of 100% recycled content material.
Additionally, recycling saves water. It’s because the extraction of virgin uncooked supplies and manufacturing them into single use gadgets makes use of up water. Recycling reduces the necessity for supplies, thus making a smaller water footprint.
what are the issues with recycling plastic?
Is recycled plastic with out its faults? In fact not. However neither is any materials. One of many main issues is what number of sorts of plastic there are. Not like glass or aluminum, there are seven predominant sorts of plastic (and much more past that), which makes recycling all of them troublesome.
Solely 9% of plastic will get recycled. This is because of a number of elements, however the first one is confusion on the a part of the patron. Shoppers see the mobius image (the chasing arrows or recycle signal) and assume, ‘I can recycle this’ — or they merely put it within the recycling bin as a result of they’re wishcycling. Extra on that in a bit.
the principle issues with recycling plastic:
- Merchandise can embrace a number of sorts of plastic and totally different layers that are exhausting to separate, making it troublesome and dear to recycle them.
- Wishcycling is if you’re fairly positive one thing isn’t recyclable, however you place it within the recycling bin anyway. Doing this could contaminate your complete bin. As soon as the bin is contaminated, not one of the gadgets inside are recycled.
- Plastics can get contaminated with meals and different substances, making it unsanitary to reuse. Because of this it’s essential to all the time rinse out your recyclables first.
- It prices tens of millions of {dollars} to construct and function a recycling facility and it’s solely worthwhile if consumers are keen to buy the bales of sorted plastics. The associated fee fluctuates based mostly on provide and demand. Bales are offered on the commodities market the place brokers purchase and promote recyclables like they’d agricultural merchandise. No purchaser? No recycling.
- It’s additionally essential to notice each state has totally different recycling legal guidelines in place. So, what’s accepted in Texas for recycling will not be true for New York. This largely has to do with the kind of recycling services the state has entry to.
so which plastics could be recycled?
The plastics which have the most effective likelihood of being recycled embrace polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
Essentially the most extensively recycled plastic on the earth is PET, which you’ll know by the resin identification code as #1. PET makes up water bottles, clear plastic cups, and a few clear clamshells.
HDPE is accepted at most recycling facilities on the earth, because it’s one of many best plastic polymers to recycle. Milk jugs, shampoo bottles, and detergent bottles are usually produced from this materials.
In line with a 2020 report from Greenpeace, solely PET and HDPE bottles and jugs meet the Federal Commerce Fee’s (FTC) definition of recyclable. This doesn’t imply that PET and HDPE are all the time recycled. But it surely does imply there’s the next demand for these supplies available in the market.
Plastics #3-#7 are a bit extra sophisticated to recycle. Right here’s what they’re:
- Resin #3: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used to make automobile oil bottles, plumbing pipes, and vinyl siding. Not recyclable in regular assortment.
- Resin #4: Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is used to make plastic movie, squeeze bottles, and frozen meals luggage. Most municipalities received’t settle for LDPE, however you’ll be able to recycle plastic movie at specified plastic movie drop off areas.
- Resin #5: Polypropylene (PP) is used to make yogurt containers, water bottle caps, and RX containers. Depart the caps on water bottles to be recycled with them, until your state says in any other case.
- Resin #6: Polystyrene (PS) is used to make plastic utensils, celebration cups and straws. Not recyclable.
- Resin #7: Different – Used to make toys, DVDs/CDs, and lenses. Usually made utilizing multiple resin from classes 1-6. Not recyclable.
For extra data, see my weblog put up on the 7 sorts of plastic you want to know.
plastic recycling myths:
Once I first began decreasing plastics in my life, plastic was actually solely being ‘recycled’ into issues like park benches and velocity bumps.
They have been taking all 6 sorts of plastic, mixing them collectively, and mechanically recycling them into sturdy objects. That is the way you get plastic #7 — it’s simply a mixture of every thing. When you hit that time, there’s actually no going again.
However, recycling expertise has improved A LOT. Now issues are recycled by their particular person numbers, both mechanically or chemically.
chemical recycling for really eco pleasant plastic
Chemical recycling nonetheless has a methods to go. Nonetheless, it guarantees to deliver the merchandise again to its authentic kind with none lack of high quality — which might be fairly cool.
In line with Colin O’Kell, a Technical Supervisor in Packaging at Rhyme & Motive: “Most moldable is at present mechanically recycled, which implies outdated supplies are floor up after sorting and cleansing, which damages the polymer chains and means plastic can solely be recycled a restricted quantity of occasions.”
“With chemical recycling, the plastics are handled so that they return to a plastic precursor substance that may then be processed again into plastic. There may be now a brand new breakthrough expertise known as enzymatic recycling the place the bonds throughout the plastics are dissolved with enzymes, leaving excellent polymer chains; this leads to plastic that’s nearly as good as virgin plastic and makes plastic infinitely recyclable.” A really eco pleasant plastic!
what can plastic be recycled into?
Now that we’ve established plastics really CAN be recycled, what can plastic be recycled INTO? There’s a surprisingly big range of merchandise:
- Polyester material for garments
- Picnic tables
- Garden furnishings
- Shampoo bottles (like Rhyme & Motive!)
- Plastic ‘lumber’ for decks
- Crown molding
- Playground gear
- Recycling bins
- Flower pots, seed trays, watering cans
- Drink bottles and meals trays
- Velocity bumps
- Site visitors cones
- Counter tops
- Carpeting
- Laptops
- Tech
- Plastic waste sorting bins
- Constructing supplies
- Eco bricks
- Backpacks
- Footwear
And that’s simply the tip of the iceberg. With will increase in expertise, and the sheer quantity of plastic we at present have within the waste stream, each product ought to be using PCR.
rhyme & motive’s recycled plastic materials
I believe Rhyme & Motive is main the way in which. They’re utilizing 100% PCR and even developed the world’s first cap produced from 100% recycled materials. For the reason that bottle is pure plastic #2, you’ll be able to put it within the recycling bin to be recycled over and over.
I hope we see much more manufacturers transfer on this course.
In line with Colin, “A giant a part of whether or not a cloth will probably be recycled is whether or not there’s a use for the recycled materials as soon as it has been reprocessed. The shortage of an finish marketplace for recycled supplies has held up the event of a recycling infrastructure for polypropylene — the plastic used to make bottle caps. As a result of bottle caps are so advanced, it’s a lot tougher to make these out of recycled supplies.”
“Then, as a result of nobody needs to make use of the recycled materials, there’s no funding within the recycling infrastructure, so the fabric is low high quality, making it tougher to make use of and which means nobody needs to make use of it! It’s a vicious circle! That’s why it’s so essential that the caps on Rhyme & Motive bottles are made with recycled PP. Rhyme & Motive has met the technical and provide challenges to deliver one thing really groundbreaking to using recycled supplies. Hopefully, this may trigger different manufacturers to observe swimsuit and kick begin the round provide chain by creating a requirement for recycled PP.”
faqs
what does chemical recycling promise for the longer term?
Chemical recycling is so promising! It opens the door to recycling tougher sorts of plastic, together with multilayer and contaminated plastics. It is going to flip rubbish right into a invaluable commodity and enhance the demand for recycled plastics. This all advantages shoppers and the surroundings in the long term!
what sorts of merchandise are you able to get from rhyme & motive?
Rhyme & Motive is a hair care firm that sells excessive efficiency shampoos, conditioners, and curl merchandise. You’ll additionally discover ending serums and plant protein restore serums! They’re additionally PETA licensed cruelty free and vegan.
the place can i purchase rhyme & motive hair care merchandise?
To buy, go to Rhyme & Motive’s web site. From there, select the product and observe the shoppable hyperlink. Relying on the product, you should buy from Boots, Amazon, or Goal. At the moment, you can’t make purchases instantly from their web site.
Would you give Rhyme & Motive a shot? Let me know if you happen to’ve tried their merchandise earlier than within the feedback!