Topic #3-Disposal of the Plastic Bottle Flashcards
What are the three ways bottles can be disposed?
Littered, Recycled, and Trashed.
What happens when you throw away a plastic bottle?
When you throw away a plastic bottle, it gets sent to either a landfill, where it decomposes for 1,000 years and lets out harmful chemicals into the ocean and atmosphere, or it gets burned letting out harmful emissions.
What happens when you recycle a plastic water bottle?
When we recycle, this plastic from our bottles can be transferred to a facility. In this facility, the people take the plastic from the water bottles and repurpose it. This means that the plastic is sold, shipped, melted, resold, and shipped again. The plastic is then used for making other stuff. This plastic can be reused for the next 500 years (depending on if that type of plastic is recyclable)
What are the various types of plastic containers? (only the two you need to know for this quiz)
-PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) with a recycling number of 1 that is known for soft drinks and bottles
-HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) with a recycling number of 2 that is known for milk jugs
What are the recycling rates of plastic bottles? (CT, US, and World)
For the recycling rates, we have found that in Connecticut alone we have a rate of 24-30% recycling rate. (under 50% for plastic bottles in specific) For the US we have a rate of 32% and for the world we only have a 9% recycling rate which proves that recycling is possible but people are not contributing to it.
Is recycling completely possible with plastic bottles?
No, recycling is actually not totally possible with plastic bottles. This is because plastic is not recycled meaning it can never be made into itself again so its reusing services are limited. It can be downcycled, just not recycled
What is the difference between down cycled and recycled?
DOWNCYCLED-when plastic is made into something else (not its original form)
RECYCLED- something that gets reused in its natural form
