I am really enjoying ( although disgusted by plastic waste) reading all your educated replies & also the thought-provoking questions on this thread. Regarding plastic recycling, here in NZ we nationally recycle #1 & 2-grade plastics... meaning that is what the Govt allows to be collected & sorted in each region & that each regional council 'should' be providing refuse sorting for these two types of plastic.... but is that the case! NO in many refuse stations the two types of plastic do not get sorted correctly & much of it ends up going straight to landfill.
I have an issue with the plastic bottle tops going to landfill... I am an environmental educator & learned that even if a # 1 or 2 recyclable plastic bottle is sent to the refuses station, if it has not had its top removed it will end up in the landfill. SO I have set up a collection of these in my local community, getting local school, early learning centres, local shops & community centres involved to collectively work together to collect these plastic bottle tops. My plan is to build a Shredder machine to shred the tops into small plastic flakes (please see https://preciousplastic.com/) I will then use my Plastic sheet press machine to melt down the plastics ( please note these are super recyclable HDPE & PP plastics that need to be heated to very high heat to burn, however, can be melted & remolded at a low heat, admitting no chemicals... meaning it is very safe) & remold into practical products, like stool tops, table tops etc. It is my way of doing my bit... I am currently having these two machines built by an engineer & can not wait to process all the plastic tops I have collected.
Kia ora from Aotearoa New Zealand...
I am really enjoying ( although disgusted by plastic waste) reading all your educated replies & also the thought-provoking questions on this thread. Regarding plastic recycling, here in NZ we nationally recycle #1 & 2-grade plastics... meaning that is what the Govt allows to be collected & sorted in each region & that each regional council 'should' be providing refuse sorting for these two types of plastic.... but is that the case! NO in many refuse stations the two types of plastic do not get sorted correctly & much of it ends up going straight to landfill.
I have an issue with the plastic bottle tops going to landfill... I am an environmental educator & learned that even if a # 1 or 2 recyclable plastic bottle is sent to the refuses station, if it has not had its top removed it will end up in the landfill. SO I have set up a collection of these in my local community, getting local school, early learning centres, local shops & community centres involved to collectively work together to collect these plastic bottle tops. My plan is to build a Shredder machine to shred the tops into small plastic flakes (please see https://preciousplastic.com/) I will then use my Plastic sheet press machine to melt down the plastics ( please note these are super recyclable HDPE & PP plastics that need to be heated to very high heat to burn, however, can be melted & remolded at a low heat, admitting no chemicals... meaning it is very safe) & remold into practical products, like stool tops, table tops etc. It is my way of doing my bit... I am currently having these two machines built by an engineer & can not wait to process all the plastic tops I have collected.