How Are Plastic Water Bottles Recycled?
Collecting The first step in the recycling process of plastic water bottles is the collection of the bottles. Some cities offer curbside collection for the recycling of plastic water bottles and other goods, but some don’t. Cities without curbside collection often have a central collection bin where consumers may turn in their plastic water bottles on their own. Sorting Once plastic water bottles are collected from curbs and central collection locations they are taken to a recycling plant where they are sorted according to their polymer types. Plastics have seven polymer types that are identified by a plastic identification code. Most plastic water bottles are either plastic identification code “1,” which is polyethylene terephthalate or plastic identification code “2,” which is high-density polyethylene. Processing After plastic water bottles are sorted by their plastic identification codes, they are further sorted by their color to prepare for the processing. The processing of plasti
