The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)’s consumer Website, www.bottledwatermatters.com, has released a new YouTube video, “Recycling Empty Plastic Bottles,” that gives consumers a good look at how a PET recycling facility converts more than two billion PET plastic bottles each year into useful materials. Most single-serve beverage bottles, food container “clamshells” and thousands of other products are made with PET plastic. To view the “Recycling Empty Plastic Bottles” video click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL_qH1ra7J0.
“Most people know that recycling is important, but they may not understand how the process of recycling occurs – how the empty plastic bottles get turned into many other useful objects,” says Tom Lauria, IBWA’s vice president of communications in a prepared statement. “This video traces the path that an empty bottles travels, from a bound bale to being made into clean plastic flake that is then heated and converted to make either food-grade rPET (recycled PET) pellets, which are used to make PET containers for food, or rPET fiber which is used in pillows, mattresses and carpeting.”
Filmed at Marglen Industries in Rome, Ga., this video demonstrates the value, importance and practicality of recycling.
“In the video a Marglen spokesman says one of the biggest issues his recycling businesses faces is not having enough empty bottles to feed their facility,” said Lauria. “U.S. recycling rates are still too low. This video is a clear message to consumers and municipalities that more needs to be done to capture this valuable material to feed recycled material processing centers rather than feeding landfills. Bottled water containers lead the pack in curbside recycling programs with a recycle rate of 31 percent, double the rate of bottled water container recycling only five years ago.
Marglen Industries is one of the largest and most sophisticated PET recycling facilities in the United States, using solar energy to help convert 2.5 billion empty bottles each year into many useful products.
“We hope that this video will help promote recycling through a better understanding of the need for more recycled material and the useful products that can be made from empty PET bottles,” said Lauria.
“It’s also important to note that making products from recycled material uses less energy than making products from virgin materials. So using recycled materials help manufacturers lower their carbon footprint,” he added.
