What happens after separating the paper, glass and plastic?

paper, glass, plastic, recycling
Everything you throw into the container comes back, That would be the wrong letter of recycling, the others are: reduce, reuse and recycle. If you wonder, or your children ask you, what happens after separating cardboard, plastic or glass in their respective containers, we are going to tell you. Because plastics, bottles or papers come back to have a new life.

As we have commented, recycling is one of the pillars of the circular economy, and tomorrow is World Recycling Day! It is important that the whole family is involved in it. These materials that we discard, and that we put in their corresponding containers, will become the raw material for other objects. So in several weeks we will have them again at our fingertips.

What happens to the glass after filling the green container?

separate glass

It is very important that we reuse the glass at home, the same bottle can serve us several times. But if we no longer find it useful, then we must deposit it in the green container. Glass takes about 5000 years to decompose, Egyptian tombs with almost intact pieces of glass have been found! Y glass is 100% recycled.

When we put our glass bottles and jars in the green bin, they are taken to a recycling plant. There the first thing they do is wash it of impurities and other materials, and separate it by color. All of it it is crushed to obtain a matter called calcin, the raw material with which to build new glass containers.

Although glass does not interact physically or chemically with the environment, the advantage of recycling it is that the calcine that other bottles had is used again. A) Yes avoids having to extract its main components from nature, which are: silica sand, sodium carbonate and limestone. We have to remember that a glass container should never be abandoned.

How is it recycled into paper?

separate cardboard and paper

El paper can be recycled up to 7 timesThis is what is called the useful life, because each time the properties of the resulting fiber are lost a little. In Spain, each year, 4 tons of paper are recycled, but we have to manage to recycle more, because this will also conserve more trees.

El cardboard and paper is not only collected through the blue container, but also from department stores or industrial centers take them to recycling plants. When we put cardboard in the container they will separate it, they are pressed into bales of standardized dimensions and weights. The paper will be classified according to its type, the newspaper is not the same as that of the magazines. 

After sorting into types of paper, they are transported to a factory where they will be turned into cellulose pulp. This pulp can also be made directly at the separation plant. With this pulp, a paste will be generated, which will be dried and rolled into large reels of paper, which will again end up becoming boxes for shoes, cereals, books, newspapers ...

And after separating the plastic?

separate plastics
In the case of the yellow container, the plastic one, first you have to separate plastic bottles, for example, from other packaging such as aluminum cans or tetrabriks, which go in the same container. Tetrabriks are the most difficult to classify because they contain paper, polyethylene and aluminum, and the cans can be recycled unlimitedly! 

Waste is classified according to weight and size, Thanks to a magnetic tape, containers that have iron are separated, such as cans with those that do not. Strictly speaking of plastic, after putting it in the container its recycling goes through 4 steps- Waste is crushed into small pieces that are then washed, centrifuged and dried to make them clean. With presses, an extrusion process is carried out by which the plastic takes the shape it is intended to obtain.


It is important that you know, and that you pass it on to your children, that all waste that is not capable of being recycled, go to controlled warehouses, landfills, or energy production plants. So now you know, to recycle, and not just tomorrow, but every day! Here We leave you some tricks to do it. 


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