Fantastic Plastic Facts

• Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to 6 hours.
• 9.1 billion plastic bottles were disposed of in 2002 with only 360 million of them being recycled.
• In Britain we use about 275,000 tonnes of plastic bottles in our homes every year- that's about 15 million bottles every day.

• It takes about 450 years just for one plastic bottle to break down in the ground!
• An average 323 plastic bags are taken into our homes every year and it takes 500 years to decay when sent to landfill.
• It takes about 25 recycled plastic drinks bottles to make one fleece jacket.
• Only 2.5% of plastic bottles are presently recycled in Europe.

How is Plastic Recycled?

• Your plastic bottles are collected either by the waste operator, or from plastic bottle banks (found at recycling centres or bring sites) and they are taken to a material reclamation facility (MRF) where they are sorted into their different types. There is a special machine that can scan each bottle to determine what type of plastic it is for example HDPE, PET and PVC.
• Once the bottles have been sorted, they are then squashed into blocks and sent to the balers to be baled.
• The bottles are then taken to a flaking plant where they are chopped into little plastic chips. The plastic is then cleaned to remove any paper labels and dirt. The bottles are then spun and dried with hot air.
• The plastic chips are then bagged and sold for reprocessing.
• The clean plastic chips are melted down and used to make lots of new items. These include new plastic bottles, anoraks, sweaters, carpets, pipes, electrical fittings and garden furniture.