Before plastics were introduced many decades ago, people used things like straw baskets, glass jars, paper and cloth bags, leather footwear, wooden toys, glass dishes, wood boxes, cotton shower curtains and organic fiber clothing like cotton, silk and linen. Now, almost all things around you are plastics. Even pipes, bottles, containers and garments are now made of plastic. Newly designed electronic equipment are mostly made of plastic material.
Plastic material items have become an indispensable part of our daily lives as many objects we are using daily are made from some kind of plastic. Plastic has many benefits over other materials since it costs much less, resists corrosion and is highly flexible and durable.
While all these properties make it the perfect material for making many substances, waste plastic material can be a threat towards the atmosphere. But regular information on proper waste disposal could resolve this problem. A global movement to educate people on the proper handling of these plastic wastes could be a lot of help to preserve our environment.
One way of helping the environment is to recycle the plastics. Although plastics are more complicated than it looks, having a way of recycling them would be a lot of help. Plastics are categorized into grade levels. Under the plastic containers have numbers indicating grade level 1 to 7. Plastic 1 and 2 are the commonly used plastics like soda bottles and cooking oil bottles. Plastic #1, the so called PET (polyethelyne terephthalate), are the most commonly used plastic and the most recyclable one. Plastic #2 also known as high density polyethelene (HDPE) are used for detergent bottles and many other food containers and a little harder than the PET. Plastics #3 too #7 needs an established plastic recyclable plants for them to be reused as they require a much bigger and complicated equipment to process.
Plastics nowadays have been utilized more frequently than ever before because of the many advantages and the flexibility it can offer to almost any kind of industries. People just have to know how to handle its waste disposal and recycle as much as possible.
Credit: Source by Ryan Tyler
