Plastic Recycling Guide
Plastic is one of the most used materials for packaging, toys, electrical items, and many other products. There are many types of plastics, which can make understanding how to dispose of them tricky, but lots of plastic waste is recyclable. It’s important to know what can and cannot be recycled in businesses, households, and elsewhere.
Recycling plastic properly helps reduce the risk of contamination, avoids sending plastic to landfill, and improves recycling rates. To help you get to grips with it we’ve pulled together this useful guide to plastic recycling. Discover which plastics can be recycled and how to dispose of plastic waste properly with these answers to frequently asked questions.
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Contents
Is plastic recyclable?
Most plastic is recyclable. Plastic bottles, pots, and trays are commonly recycled by businesses and households. Hard and soft plastics are recyclable, but it can depend on the grade, condition, and disposal facility where the waste goes. Generally, the lower the code the easier the plastic is to recycle.
Even though many plastics are recyclable, the reality and extent of how much is recycled depends on financial, logistical, and technical factors. Some plastic requires specialist machinery to recycle it while for certain types it can be expensive, which means facilities don’t always recycle it.
How is plastic recycled?
The plastic recycling process involves collecting and sorting scrap or waste and cleaning it to remove any contaminants. It’s then either shredded into flakes or melted down and turned into new products. Most plastics are melted into pellets, which are used to make denser plastics – such as chairs and tables.
Waste plastic is collected and then sorted into different plastic types first. Based on this it’s then sent to a specialist recycling unit that handles the specific plastic grade. How the plastic is recycled then depends on the type and recycling facility. Some of the common methods and processes for plastic recycling include:
- Plastic recyclables can be shredded and cleaned to remove all impurities, such as labels. It’s then melted down to make pellets, from which new plastics are made.
- One plastic recycling process produces petroleum. This occurs by deploying a depolymerization process, which can include many different strains of plastic. Almost any polymer or a mix of polymers can be used to make these products.
- An increasingly popular plastic recycling process is heat compression. This basically takes all forms of plastic – from bottles and hard industrial pipes to medicine containers and clothing – and mixes them together in huge rotating drums that look like tumble driers. This means all sorts of plastic waste can be recycled, but the process uses a lot of energy.
Why is it important to
recycle plastics?
There are many benefits of recycling plastic as a business. For every tonne of plastic recycled, it saves about 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space. This avoids more plastic potentially polluting nearby soil and water sources, as chemicals can leach out, while it can take hundreds of years to break down.
Recycling plastic also means less new plastic needs creating, which significantly reduces the amount of energy, raw materials, and resources required. For your business, it also saves money by avoiding paying more landfill tax to get rid of your waste. And it shows your clients that you’re actively finding environmentally friendly waste solutions.
How to dispose of plastic waste
How to dispose of plastic can be confusing for businesses and individuals with so many types out there. Businesses must separate and throw away used plastic in individual bins and arrange collection by licensed waste carriers. Households should check with the local council to see what plastic materials they can recycle in their domestic recycling bins.
When plastic is recycled, it’s not melted down to make the same substance again. Melted plastics of different strengths can separate, like oil and water. This means there are some barriers to plastic recycling, which is why different counties and districts have different rules. The widespread use of dyes and polymers also affects the viscosity of plastic, so it needs to be sorted accordingly.
Businesses don’t need to separate every individual plastic type to dispose of it. Simply arrange delivery of plastic waste bins to your premises and fill them with any type of waste plastic within the weight limits of the bin. Ensure all the plastic products are clean and dry to avoid contaminants.
Place the bins at the agreed accessible pickup point ahead of collection time. Your plastic waste will be transported to a nearby recycling plant where it’s sorted, cleaned, and either recycled or disposed of via another method depending on the plastic type.
What plastics are recyclable?
There are lots of different types of plastics that are recyclable but not all of them are as easy to recycle as others. You can check the symbol on most plastics to see its type and whether it may be easy to recycle. Some of the most common recyclable plastics are:
Which plastics cannot be recycled?
Not all plastic is recyclable. You can normally work this out by checking the Resin Identification Code (RIC) on a plastic product – usually a number in a recycling triangle shape. Anything with a number seven on it may be hard or impossible to recycle. Even if they’re technically recyclable it might not be easy or widespread.
The main plastics that you cannot recycle include bioplastics, composite plastic, and some plastic packaging. Cling film isn’t recyclable as it’s too thin while blister packaging is a common type of plastic hard to recycle as it contains other materials.
Where does plastic end up
if it’s not recycled?
Sadly, any plastic waste that you cannot recycle usually ends up in landfill or being incinerated. Work is ongoing to develop more recyclable and biodegradable plastic types, but a lot of nonrecyclable plastic is still in use. Incineration avoids more waste going to landfill but it can release pollutants and requires larger amounts of energy consumption – neither of which are good for our planet.
Plastic has historically not been biodegradable, which means it doesn’t decompose naturally over time. Technicians have been working to improve this and there are now many alternatives. Unfortunately, most of the foods we buy from supermarkets come in some sort of plastic container and we have a way to go before all companies are using biodegradable alternatives.
How many times can
you recycle plastic?
Normally you can only recycle plastic once, sometimes two or three times. Much like recycling paper, every time you recycle the same piece of plastic it loses quality. The polymer chain grows shorter every time an item of plastic goes through the recycling process, which weakens it and reduces its quality.
If you’re getting rid of recycled plastic products, it’s still worth adding to your plastic recycling bins though. At the recycling plant, they’ll be sorted and assessed, so any appropriate plastics are reused and recycled where possible and disposed of responsibly if not (rather than going to landfill).
Is polyethylene recyclable?
Most products made completely from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) are recyclable. While polyethylene isn’t biodegradable, it’s very easy to recycle as it’s not bonded with other plastics. Examples of polyethylene products you can recycle include detergent bottles, plastic milk cartons, and cereal packets.
Can polypropylene be recycled?
You can recycle polypropylene (PP) in most cases. It’s often used for food packaging and thousands of other products across the automotive, medical, and retail industries. As well as being recyclable, polypropylene takes less time to break down and releases fewer toxins, making it one of the greener plastics. You can recycle polypropylene with your other commercial plastic waste.
Is polycarbonate recyclable?
Polycarbonate (PC) is fully recyclable. It’s used to create CDs, DVDs, plastic trays, bottles, and other items. When you’re finished with them you can recycle PC items that are turned into new material for various uses. Polycarbonate is shredded and granulated as part of the recycling process.
Can you recycle polymer?
Polymer recycling is possible as it can be melted down and reformed. Waste polymer plastics and products are taken to a recycling centre and separated into different polymer types. These are shredded, melted, and turned into polymer pellets. The polymer pellets are then sold and used in new plastic products.
You can recycle polymer plastics alongside other plastic types when disposing of such waste from your business or home, as it will be sorted at the recycling centre before processing.
Is fibreglass recycled with plastic?
Fibreglass should not be recycled with other types of plastic. It’s a reinforced plastic material containing glass fibres, which are hard to separate from the plastic resin. Therefore any type of waste fibreglass should be stored away from other plastic and recycled on its own.
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Published 13th February 2025 by Graham Matthews.