When it comes to giving packaging a second life, the usual thing is to imagine plastic bottles converted into other packaging, but some of the clothes you wear, the book you have on your bedside table and even some components of your car they had a previous life.
No matter how new they may seem, around us there are numerous objects made from recycled material from plastic and paper containers, cans or glass that are deposited in colored containers.
According to data from the Ecoembes organization, last year, each citizen separated 17.1 kilos of plastic containers, cans and cartons in the yellow container and 19.4 kilos of paper and cardboard containers in the blue one, recycling a total of 1,505 .661 tons.
As part of the process known as the circular economy, discarded packaging goes through a recovery process.
For example,
with 80 cans of soda you can make a bicycle tire
, according to the non-profit environmental organization that coordinates packaging recycling in Spain.
Does not lose quality
There is a false myth about products made from recycled material that raises doubts about their quality.
"Both glass, aluminum and many plastics can be recycled in an unlimited way without losing their quality"
, says Cristina Muñoz, from Ecoembes.
When the first recycling processes appeared decades ago, the available technology did not allow the manufacture of complex articles made, for example, from a mixture of toys and briks.
An obstacle that today has been overcome, allowing the recycling of materials as complicated as mixed plastic.
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Marked with the number seven on the container, this type of material is a mixture of several plastics, so the difficulty in recycling is that the types of resins it contains are not known with certainty.
Similarly, even this type of plastic can make nylon fibers, car parts or compact discs.
The second life of plastic
The end product depends on the type of recycled plastic used to make it.
After the previously mentioned plastic mix, the most difficult to reuse is the polystyrene
with which the egg cups, food trays or packaging are made.
It is common for their second life to be in coatings and insulation systems.
In the case of polypropylene present in straws, lunch boxes or bottle caps, the final products that could be obtained through recycling are car battery boxes or joists.
Objects made from low-density polyethylene, such as plastic wrap or garbage bags, can be converted into the same product after recycling.
Likewise, polyvinyl chloride, the main component of cables, synthetic skins or credit cards, in its recycled version is part of drainage and irrigation pipes.
When the material is high-density polyethylene, such as that used to make milk bottles, it can be transformed into new containers but also into a toy, a box or a piece of furniture.
Specifically, with six recycled cartons you can make a shoe box.
Marine litter
The easiest plastic to recycle is polyethylene terephthalate
, known as PET and used to make water or soda bottles.
In addition to being recycled to produce new packaging, synthetic fibers for textiles can be obtained from it.
For example, various clothing brands take advantage of marine litter to make recycled PET-based fabrics (turning between 40 and 80 plastic bottles into a fleece lining and 22 bottles into a T-shirt).
Gel or cosmetic jars, backpacks, pens, umbrellas, DVDs, mobile phone cases, coffee mugs, spectacle frames and even furniture are also made with this same material.
Specifically, some furniture brands offer kitchen fronts made from 25 recycled PET bottles.
Throughout this year, you may have sat on more than one occasion in a chair made from 550 recycled soda cans, cooked pasta in a pot whose metal part comes from eight cans, or hung a family photo on a frame whose aluminum also had a previous life in the form of a soda can.
Currently
many wineries bottle their wines using recycled glass
, a material that does not wear out no matter how many times it is reused.
Another surprising destination for glass is a kitchen countertop and other household items that can be found in any home.
Carton packages are also excellent candidates for renewal and passing away.
For example, with eight boxes of cereal you can make a book.
Asphalt roads with recycled plastic
Recycled materials are not only present in everyday objects.
For example, in Mexico, they have been carrying out a road construction project based on recycled plastic since last year, which, in addition, according to the country's Ministry of Communications and Transportation, is 50% more durable.
Specifically, to manufacture four kilometers of asphalt they have used 425,000 plastic containers.
There are more examples in other countries.
In India, since 2001, the doctor of chemistry Rajagopalan Vasudevan has been working on a project that uses plastic for road construction.
Currently, the country has already built more than 20,000 kilometers of roads paved with recycled plastic.
Following the same model, in Africa there are more than 400 meters of road paved with an asphalt made with almost 40,000 two-liter bottles of milk, while in the Netherlands in 2018 they inaugurated the world's first cycle lane made entirely of recycled plastic.
To build around 30 meters of road, about 500,000 plugs were used.
This same year, countries like the Philippines and Spain have started similar projects.
Specifically, in our country there are already sections of highways paved with recycled tires.
For example, in a section of 11 kilometers, about 400 tons of an additive composed of 65% end-of-life tire powder were used, for which 240 tons of this powder have been used, which is equivalent to more than 25,000 used tires.
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