It doesn’t come back the same
You would be forgiven for thinking that every time you throw a plastic bottle into the recycling bin it would eventually be recycled into another plastic bottle. Unfortunately, that’s not quite how it works. Most plastics can only be recycled one time and not into a bottle. Instead, they are more likely to end up as part of the material that produces a shoe or jumper.
Believe it or not, most plastics can only be recycled once or twice before they are downcycled, which means they are recycled into something of a lesser value. Plastic is often downcycled to create clothing. It is much more energy efficient to downcycle plastic and create these items than it is to use all new materials to create them.
When plastic is sent to landfill, a significant percentage of it finds its way into our oceans and seas in fact, some estimations state that we are dumping around 12 million tons into our oceans every year. This poses a significant problem for marine life, which already has to cope with a number of manmade threats, such as blue green algae, overfishing and coral bleaching.
What can we do?
It’s startling isn’t it, but the fight isn’t over, there’s loads we can all do to prevent plastic pollution. The big one we can all get involved with to do our bit is buying recycled goods, I don’t mean a recycled bottle of pop from the shop (even though that is a good start) I’m talking about the endless amounts of goods being produced out of recycled items that are available. Furniture! Furniture’s a big one now, from lamp shades to curtains, there are so many household goods being made from recycled goods, so it only takes a quick google of recycled plastic goods for you to make a positive impact on the plastic pollution issue we’re facing.
Its startling isn’t it, but the fight isn’t over, there’s loads we can all do to prevent plastic pollution. The big one we can all get involved with to do our bit is buying recycled goods, I don’t mean a recycled bottle of pop from the shop (even though that is a good start) I’m talking about the endless amounts of goods being produced out of recycled items that are available. Furniture! Furniture’s a big one now, from lamp shades to curtains, there are so many household goods being made from recycled goods, so it only takes a quick google of recycled plastic goods for you to make a positive impact on the plastic pollution issue we’re facing.
