Plastic Waste Recycling Sheffield
Environmental protection is one of our top priorities at Sheffield Waste. With our services, we’d like to help businesses and consumers become more sustainable, as well as strengthen the recycling industry in the UK, increase employment opportunities, and lead to a circular economy.
What is Plastic Waste?
There is one material man-made that appears on land, in the air, and even in the depths of the ocean. Our ecosystem has been shaped by it for so long that much of it that was made years ago still remains. And this material is called plastic. Because of its availability and disposability, it causes a lot of waste. This is to say that plastic gets discarded after a single use, hence creating tons of waste.
Many recyclable plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in bottles and other packaging, end up in landfills. Other plastics, such as salad bags and other food containers, end up in landfills because they are made up of a mix of polymers that are difficult to separate in a recycling plant. Litter on the street and lightweight plastics deposited illegally in landfills can be transported by the wind or washed into rivers by rain, eventually ending up in the ocean. This helps nobody, and especially the environment. So, while plastic is a durable material that makes our lives easier, disposing of it correctly is more important.
How To Dispose of Plastic Waste?
The most prominent way that plastic waste is disposed of or eliminated is through recycling.
Plastics are often recycled mechanically, which involves sorting, cleaning, shredding, melting, and remoulding. However, the quality of plastic degrades each time it is recycled in this manner. The polymer chains are partially broken down when the plastic is heated, lowering its tensile strength and viscosity, making it more difficult to produce. New, lower-grade plastic is frequently inappropriate for use in food packaging, and most plastic can only be recycled a few times before it degrades to the point of being worthless.
There are some plastics that cannot be recycled back to plastic materials due to their composition or the fact that they have been recycled over and over already and have reached their end-of-life in recycling. For these kinds of plastic, we have what is called chemical recycling. Chemical recycling is a method of recycling non-recyclable materials. Chemical recycling, rather than a system in which some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong color or composed of mixtures, may see all forms of plastic fed into an “infinite” recycling system that unmakes plastics back into oil, which can then be used to produce plastic again. Plastic chemical recycling ensures that no plastic goes to waste because it cannot be recycled the traditional way.
Plastic Recycling Process
Gathering waste plastic items from business premises is the initial stage in plastic recycling. It is also known as a collection. Following collecting, we will then transport the plastic to facilities where it is separated into several categories. Plastics vary in size, color, thickness, and application, as you probably already know. Recycling machines separate plastics according to their qualities in this procedure.
Colour and resin content in the plastic are frequently used by recyclers to separate plastics. Sorting is necessary since it informs recyclers about the materials involved and how they are recycled. The plastics will then be washed after sorting them to remove contaminants. Paper labels, dirt, and particles are examples of impurities in plastic. Plastic materials may contain glue and other chemicals, which can be removed by washing them.
The process of washing is followed by shredding. Plastic can’t be recycled in its current state since it’s too developed. It is necessary to reduce the size of the plastic material so that it can be recycled. When plastic is chopped into little pieces, it is easier to manage than when it is in its original state. Plastic can also be reprocessed into materials other than plastic products thanks to shredding.
Plastic recycling is completed by compounding. Using this process, recyclers reclaim microplastic and make replicable plastic materials. Plastic particles are mashed and melted to make pellets through compounding.