Comments on: How do recycling plants separate different types of plastics? http://www.gogreenertips.com/going-green-tips/how-do-recycling-plants-separate-different-types-of-plastics/ Going Greener To Save Money Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:49:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.41 By: dooberheim http://www.gogreenertips.com/going-green-tips/how-do-recycling-plants-separate-different-types-of-plastics/comment-page-1/#comment-1641 Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:40:03 +0000 http://www.gogreenertips.com/going-green-tips/how-do-recycling-plants-separate-different-types-of-plastics/#comment-1641 If you’re talking about a municipal Materials Recovery Facility, for example, they usually just do it by hand. Plastics are the most problematic recyclables as far as contamination – a lot of plastic loads are sent to landfills or burned because of that.

The adhesives and labels are soaked off in hot water. Glass is usually not recycled anymore as it is too expensive to transport – here they use it in building roads. Plastics, depending on the type, can tolerate some adhesive contamination as they are melted and pressed into structural materials like those plastic benches you see. Few plastics are able to be remanufactured into the same item it came from, unlike glass or aluminum.

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