The first step in recycling plastics is sorting. In this process, plastic film scraps from various sources are separated according to thickness and color. The scraps are then blended and crushed. From the crusher, the crushed plastic scraps are taken to a huge container called a dirty silo. Here they are mixed and washed with water. The wet flakes are next taken to a washing chamber. Here particles such as sand and metal are removed. The flakes are washes once more and dried in an oven. The dried flakes then go through an extruder where the molten plastic is reduced in size and cooled. The cooled sheets pass through air streams to make sure the trapped water is removed. Finally, a dicer cuts the sheets into pellets. Some of these pellets are exported but the rest are sold to plastic molders who produce household products and small industrial parts.

There’s money to be made from the recycling of plastics. The price of virgin plastic materials is rising all the time. The public can help protect the environment by encouraging all forms of recycling and one way of helping the recycling of plastics is to separate our plastic waste from the rest of our garbage.

Tags: recycling plastic

A few years ago, shoppers in Malaysia were given paper and bags to hold their purchases. The bags were relatively strong, cheap to produce, easy to store and, most important off all, easy to dispose of. However, paper bags are now almost a rarity. Plastic bags or containers made of Styrofoam are handed out even in the smallest of grocery shops. Plastic bags have the advantage of being able to hold liquids and they can be re-used. They are capable of holding heavier items and are also, relatively cheap. However, the problem with plastic bags and other containers made of plastic is that they are not easy to get rid of. They are not biodegradable. One only has to look at the unsightly plastic bags littering public recreational facilities to realize the seriousness of the problem.

Plastic does not decompose easily. If burnt, plastic waste emits toxic fumes. Current methods of treating plastic waste in Malaysia include incineration, land fill disposal and recycling. In many industrialized countries, landfill space is dwindling. Plastic waste disposal is also becoming an increasingly costly affair. This has made recycling an urgent exercise. Concern for the environment in these countries has led to demands for safer methods of disposal. Incineration, in the last five years, it is estimated that our consumption of plastic has increased by more than 10 per cent. Recycling is now not just an environmental issue but a necessity. Plastic recycling in this country is still in its infancy. There are few small-scale operators and they operate by trial and error. In the West, sophisticated methods using chemicals are used to test plastics but here in small companies are traditional methods such as burning plastics and identifying them by smell.

Tags: recycling plastic