July 16, 2009 12:32

The Many Uses of Recycled Plastic

I’m always amazed to see what people can do with stuff that otherwise might just have been thrown away. A big part of why I’m so passionate about the re-source™ recycling mission is because I find the ingenuity that goes into reusing things inspiring. But even more importantly, I think it reassures me that collectively “we” are continuing to push towards the development of ever more sustainable ways of producing the goods we all use everyday.

For example, you know that rubbery surface that many playgrounds have to protect our kids if they fall? Those tiles are often made with recycled rubber. The insulation in your winter jacket might actually be made with plastic recovered from old milk jugs. And then there are the park benches, planters, bike racks, synthetic decking lumber, and various forms of household furniture that also are made from recycled plastic.

Even books can be made with recycled plastic. In fact, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002), the book that helped inspire the re-source™ project, is printed entirely on thin plastic sheets that look exactly like paper but are far more durable. (Curious to learn more about how the world can start making products that minimize waste and even be good for the environment? Cradle to Cradle will make perfect beach or pool-side reading this summer: thanks to those plastic pages, it’s completely waterproof!)

As you can see, besides being made into another bottle, recycled plastic can be repurposed for many uses. I’m happy to report that we’re working on agreements with several partners who will further help us ensure that recycled re-source™ bottles will be put to good use, including clothing and carpeting. I’m looking forward to exploring these recycling applications—and the people behind them—and sharing what I’m learning with you here. I have to admit to feeling both very eager and a little bit nervous to see how much of a difference we can make with the re-source mission, as we’re challenging ourselves to do with your help. One thing I do know already, though: we always have the ability to surprise ourselves.

Do you know of a really cool use of recycled plastic? Let us know by contacting us. We’d love to write about it.

—Monique and The re-source Team

Tags: recycled plastic

s. bess mclaughlin 7/27/2009

Plastic cannot be recycled like glass or aluminum. Plastic can only be decycled into lower grade plastics. If you want to do something earth-friendly, make the bottles out of glass so that people can re-use them safely.
Please.

re-source Team 8/4/2009

Hi s. bess mclaughlin

We understand your concerns and wanted to share some information that we have in hopes that it will help ease your apprehension towards recycling plastic.

As you mentioned, glass is a great material, but it also has some downsides.  It requires a lot of energy to make and ship.  Plastic is a sturdy, safe, lightweight and convenient material.  In fact, an EPA study examined the environmental impact of different types of packaging, and determined that plastic, not glass, was the winner.   You should read this article to find out more information on this topic - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/09/28/in_praise_of_plastic/.

Your comment about “decycling” is partially true - I believe you’re referring to a term that is called "downcycling", which is when a product gets a second life as a material of lesser quality.  When virgin PET plastic is recycled it does looses a very small amount of its "rigid" qualities, but it so little that you would not begin to notice a difference in the strength of the material until it has gone through the recycling process many times.  So it can in fact be recycled many times over just like glass and aluminum. One example of this is our own bottle.  It is made from 25% recycled plastic and the plastic is still a high quality product.

You may be happy to know that there is a non-mechanical recycling process being worked on that breaks down the materials within the PET plastic to their base building blocks so that they can be recombined to create essentially virgin quality PET. This has the potential of making PET plastic infinitely recyclable without any loss of physical properties.  We think this is great news but it won't be of much use if we don't get people to change their habits from trashing to recycling.  We truly believe that if we can increase the recycling rates in our country it will positively influence the demand for better processes like this one, and we think that is a good step in the right direction.  Our friends at Greenopolis can give you more information on recycling http://greenopolis.com/

We hope you will support our efforts to reduce waste and keep plastic PET out of the trash, as we think giving the material a second life is a steps in the right direction.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
The re-source team

Jack 8/8/2009

So, is your 25% PET content just a trial or is it based on your comments about the quality and strength of the base material going into your bottle. What is your reason for not using 50% recycled material?

re-source Team 8/17/2009

Jack,

Thanks so much for asking - we started with 25% rPET for a few reasons but the most important one was to represent the U.S. recycling rate and bring awareness about how few bottles are actually being recycling. Did you know that currently only about 25% of all PET bottles are being recycled in the U.S.? We think this number is way too low and we are trying to encourage people to recycle more so we can quickly increase this rate.

Another challenge is due to the law of supply and demand. Currently there is limited availability to a “clean stream” of high-quality rPet that has food grade level approval for consumption – but we hope our efforts to bring awareness to products made out of recycled plastic coupled with our goal to increase recycling rates of PET bottles will help change that in the future.

And yes we started with 25% rPET as a test to ensure our ability to successfully produce and ship a bottle made out of recycled content. We have already begun researching ways to successfully increase the level of rPET in our bottles and hope to be able to bring a new bottle to you within 1yr. Our long-term vision is to continually increase the amount of recycled plastic in our bottles, with a goal of one day introducing a bottle made from 100% recycled plastic (rPET).

We hope that helps to answer your question but if not feel free to let us know.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
The re-source team