 When
you set your recycling carts at the curb, do you wonder what happens
to the materials you have put in that cart? Whether you know it or
not you have starting the recycling loop in motion.
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The materials are
collected by the recycling truck.
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The recyclables
that are picked up at the curb or other drop off sites are taken to
recycling facilities for sorting. From there they are sent to special
plants to be remanufactured into new products. Let’s see how
products are recycled.
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Cans are soaked in a chemical that
separates the tin coating from the steel. The cans are then washed,
crushed into bales, and sent to a steel plant to be made into other
recycled products.
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Aluminum cans
are melted, cleaned, reinforced with new aluminum, poured into ingots,
rolled back into new can stock, and shipped to canning companies for
filling.
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 Glass
is cleaned, crushed and mixed with sand, soda ash, and limestone. It
is melted at temperatures that can reach 2800 degrees F, molded, and
blown into its final shape.
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Paper is sorted and then "de-inked"
in which paddles beat the paper to remove old ink, glue and staples.
A screen shakes the pulp into a flat,
wet mass, which is then heated and passed through drying rollers. The
water is squeezed out and the dry pulp is made into new paper and cardboard.
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  Your
soda bottles are sent to a plant where they are washed, cut into quarter
inch pieces and removed of impurities. The pieces are shipped to plastic
manufacturing plants to be made into new items such as bottles, carpeting,
and fiberfill.
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