4 Types of Plastics - What Type of Plastic is Recyclable? Let's Find Out!
#1. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)
This is one of the more common types of plastics you’ll come across. This type of plastic is used for soda bottles, water bottles, and other consumer products. They can be recycled if there’s a recycling center for these plastics in your area. If not, you can always opt for a junk removal service in Calgary.
#2. HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene)
Another common type of plastic used for consumer products, mostly used for milk gallon containers, bottles for olive oil, and even some toys. HDPE can be recycled as well, but unfortunately, only a small number of it gets recycled. Make sure you note down if you have HDPE plastic around and have it recycled professionally by The Junk Movement team.
(**Learn about “The Different Types of Recyclables” right here!)
#3. PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)
Often used as packaging for medication and is found in cling film, PVC is a flexible plastic used in many consumer products. You may think it’s a good idea to collect it for recycling purposes, but PVC cannot be recycled. You should simply throw it away. We know; it’s terrible.
#4. PP (Polypropylene)
This is a type of plastic that’s used for products that require durability. The prime examples of PP products include plastic buckets, storage trays, and bottle caps. The good news is that this plastic can be recycled into other products and even reused. Unfortunately, many people think it can’t be recycled. As a result, they end up throwing these plastic products away instead of recycling them.
Common Products that are Created from Recycled Materials
Plastics
In the U.S., about 28 percent of all plastic bottles thrown out are recycled every year—it takes about 10 bottles to create a t-shirt or 63 bottles to make a sweater.
Bottle caps made of plastic are used to create storage containers, shopping bags, and ropes.
Playground equipment, picnic tables and lawn furniture are fantastic products that last for decades and get a lot of use.
Metals
There’s no doubt about it, recycling has been an incredible success story for our planet.
Metal can create hundreds of new products by recycling it. Tin, steel and aluminum in construction materials, metal cans (such as soda or beer), bike parts- all contain recycled materials themselves.
Glass
Imagine the possibilities of an endless supply of unique and recycled building materials.
Glass is a versatile material that can be endlessly reused. Jars, bottles or even fiber glass are created from any type of used glass container- no matter how small it may seem like when broken up into pieces for recycling purposes.
Paper
Recycling items made of paper is a great way to keep our landfills from adding unnecessary waste.
Recycling old telephone books, cardboard, old newspapers into new paper products like toilet paper, paper bags, sheetrock and more.
