THE FACTS: How are the recycled bottles used?

 

1-PETE#1 - PETE

These are the plastic bottles used for soft drinks, water and numerous other items.

This recycled plastic can be made into fabrics used in clothing and the insulating materials in outerwear as well as carpeting. It only takes five soft drink or water bottles to make enough fabric for a T-shirt and only five 2-liter bottles to make the fiber needed for a yard of carpeting!

 

2-HDPE#2 - HDPE

These are bottles used for laundry detergent, shampoo, milk and fruit juice containers.

Recycled HDPE is turned into many products such as toys, plastic lumber, outdoor furniture, benches, truck cargo liners and many other consumer products. It’s even used to manufacture recycling bins and roll carts.

 

How does recycling plastic bottles save energy?

Since new plastic bottles are made from petroleum (oil), recycling your used plastic bottles saves a significant amount of this non-renewable resource. Recycling just 2 tons (36,000 16-ounce plastic bottles = 1 ton) of plastic bottles saves almost four barrels of oil.

Across the globe, we throw away more than 1 million plastic bottles a minute! These plastic bottles add to our already overwhelmed trash disposal and landfill system. By recycling your plastic bottles you save almost 8 cubic yards of this decreasing landfill space. Not to mention the more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic that float in our oceans!

As the economic and environmental costs of running a landfill increase year after year, every pound of plastic we keep out of garbage trucks helps to extend the life of our landfills, saves non-renewable resources, saves energy, creates more sustainable communities and CREATES JOBS!