In our program, we have described the trip made by plastic bottles from stores to recycling bins and then to recycling centers. The bottles are then broken down into small pieces, which are put into bags. Now, we will witness the rebirth of a plastic bottle.
Mark Rath is a supervisor at Peninsula Packaging. At his business, pieces of plastic become products like carry-out trays at food stores and restaurants.
“This will become a plastic sheet, and eventually a thermoform product.”
Peninsula Packaging melts and flattens plastic so it can be shaped and molded. The process is complex.
“We take the clear chips like this, and it goes into an oven, and it cooks for about 3 to 4 hours in that oven.”
The plastic cooks at almost 200 degrees Celsius. When the melted plastic comes out of the oven, it is made into carry-out trays or other food packaging. The plastic is then wrapped, rolled and taken to what is called a “thermoform station.”
“We unwind the plastic into a very long oven where we heat it again, and then we’ll form it in a forming station. We’ll follow it through and see what happens to it.”
What happens to the recycled plastic involves a vacuum, lots of pressure, and -- believe it or not -- more recycling.
“If you could imagine that you’re cutting cookies out of a piece of dough on the counter…you get a round cookie and you have all this dough left over…we put it back through, grind it up into little pieces and put it back through the extrusion process.”
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25