Acceptance of plastic bags for recycling. How to recycle plastic bags Everything you wanted to know about bags and didn't hesitate to ask

In certain industries, a huge amount of used plastic bags accumulate, which should not be thrown into the trash at all. The RusMak company accepts plastic bags for processing in any volume. Thanks to our company, the accepted plastic bag gets a second life in the form of various products, such as:

• tight bags or film;
• watering cans, flower pots or plastic tableware;
• plastic parts for various accessories.

Favorable admission conditions

A huge number of plastic bags accumulate not only at our homes, but also in large shopping malls, small shops and various departments that are directly related to the plastic packaging of goods. The bags thrown into the trash pollute the environment very much. harmful substances, so everyone can take part in saving the soil from toxins. Our company is ready to buy polyethylene on favorable terms for you. In this case, the price of admission depends on the following factors:

• weight of plastic bags;
• degree of purity;
• sorting waste into certain types.

The RusMak company is ready to offer its own transport for the independent removal of plastic waste and bags.

Good day, brain! Plastic recycling is topical issue and this brainguide is one of the answers to it.

Plastic bags are so widespread that they have become one of the elements of littering our space, and the planet as a whole. But not everything is so sad, because you can do it yourself at home, recycle them into sheets of plastic that are useful for your homemade products.

Step 1: Get familiar with the process

Step 2: Materials and Tools

• Plastic bags (HDPE)
• Baking parchment
• baking sheet
• Scissors
• Oven

Step 3: Prepare Packages

To start, copy a large number of bags, I have accumulated about 64 pieces, and as we accumulate, we wash them and dry them.

Please note that for the process described in this brainguide, HDPE bags are needed, low density LDPE will also work, but it has more low temperature melting. Coloring and logos on the packages do not play a role, the main thing is the uniformity of the material, as indicated by the marking.

Step 4: Slicing the bags

We cut dry and clean bags: we cut off the handles and the bottom, thereby obtaining polyethylene rings, which we also cut along one side. I decided not to use the sides of the bag with the logo, so I cut them off to get a single color. brain plastic.

Step 5: Seal 4 packs

We begin the process of soldering polyethylene sheets obtained earlier by cutting the packages. To do this, tear off a piece of parchment for baking a little larger than plastic sheets and spread it on a heat-resistant surface, for example, on plywood or OSB. We lay out a stack of 4 sheets of polyethylene on parchment, and cover with another piece of parchment on top.

We turn on the iron and set it to medium temperature, and when it warms up, we start ironing a stack of polyethylene sheets from the middle to the edges. Well, we iron the sheets over the entire surface, then remove the top parchment and see how the sheets melted. If it’s not very good, then we cover them with parchment again and iron them, but for more high temperature. If holes appear in the fused sheets, the temperature of the iron is too high and must be reduced.

Picking up desired temperature, in the same way we iron the remaining packages, thereby making four-layer sheets, which we will later combine into thicker ones.

Step 6: Soldering Thicker Sheets

Now you need to solder four-layer sheets of polyethylene into thicker ones. way brain test and errors, I came to the conclusion that four-layer sheets are the most optimal. A smaller number of layers melts with the formation of holes, and a larger number is more difficult to solder.

Therefore, we take two four-layer sheets, place them between sheets of parchment and iron at a higher temperature, also from the middle to the edges. To make the process go better, when soldering, we carry out the iron with pressure. As a result, we get already eight-layer sheets of polyethylene.

In order to make sheets with a large number of layers, we put a four-layer polyethylene on an eight-layer polyethylene and iron it, etc. to the desired thickness of the plastic briquette. In this case, it is recommended to alternate the back and front sides for soldering, that is, turn over after the next soldering, thereby avoiding deformation of the briquettes.

From four-layer sheets, you can sew light raincoats and bags, from eight-layer coats or a bag. 12-layer sheets and more are suitable for creating backpacks and laptop bags. 24-layer polyethylene can be used to create models and crafts, and 64-layer for containers and more durable products.

Step 7: Baking the Polyethylene

To improve the quality of your multi-layer sheets, because sometimes they do not stick well or bubble, you can bake them in the oven. To do this, you need a baking sheet, and preferably two, the same parchment and a few bricks.

We spread parchment on one baking sheet, lay a multi-layered polyethylene on it. brain brick, on top of the polyethylene, another sheet of parchment and another baking sheet, on which we place a brick or two for weighting.

We put the resulting structure in the oven for half an hour with a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius. Through specified time we take it out and be sure to let it cool, while not removing the bricks to avoid deformation.

When the structure has cooled to room temperature, remove the bricks, take out the baked polyethylene and check its edge. If it is completely soldered, solid, then the process was successful, if it is heterogeneous, there are non-soldered places, then you may have to repeat the process at a higher temperature, up to 230 degrees.

Step 8: Trimming the Edges

In the process of soldering, the edges of the polyethylene briquettes have lost their rectilinear shape, so we take scissors in our hands and give them desired shape rectangle.

Step 9: Application

Now that plastic bags reworked, included brain-building and create something useful out of briquettes. By the way, this recycled polyethylene can be used in vacuum forming and even for the manufacture of cores for a glue gun.
Good luck in creativity and clean space around you!

It's impossible to imagine modern world no plastic items. About a third of all plastic products today are made from polyethylene. Along with the obvious benefits of its use, topical issue remains the search effective ways processing and disposal of this polymer.

Polyethylene (accepted abbreviations - PET, PE) is a thermoplastic polymer that is widely used to create a huge number of goods. Its use began in the 20th century: since the 30s it has been used in the production of telephone cables, since the 50s - as packaging in the food industry.

Today the list of PET products is huge:

• packaging film, bags, garbage bags;
• scotch;
• all kinds of containers: bottles, cans, boxes, canisters, containers, flower pots, etc.;
• pipes for sewerage and gas supply;
• electrical insulation, thermal insulation;
• accumulators, containers for liquid and solid chemicals;
• various types of fencing, etc.

Depending on the technology, polyethylene is produced and used in modern industry. different types and operational properties, for example:

• high pressure or low density (abbr. -, LDPE, LDPE - a more plastic type of polyethylene, used for the production of film, cable);
• low pressure or high density (abbr. - HDPE, HDPE - has a more rigid and durable structure);
• polyethylene terephthalate (abbr. - PET, PET, PETE - used only for the production of disposable goods), etc.

What is polyethylene of different density, and what types of packaging are made from it

Manufacturing process of plastic bags

The main types of polyethylene waste and where they come from

The popularity and mass consumption of PE lead to the fact that every day a huge number of used items from it fall into the category of waste:

1. Polyethylene household products. This includes packaging film, bags, bottles, vials and canisters from under household chemicals, waste blisters from under medicines and other items used by people in Everyday life. All this is thrown into the ordinary every day. garbage containers for MSW (solid household waste). According to various estimates, the share of polyethylene in MSW is about ten percent of the total volume.
2. PE industrial waste. This, again, is packaging film, all kinds of bags, plastic packaging waste from stores (for example, food boxes), pipes, worn cable braids, etc.
3. Technological marriage at the enterprises for the production of PE products. Its volume can reach up to ten percent of all raw materials produced.

Polyethylene products are cheap and convenient. The most significant "disadvantage" of any type of plastic is the long period of natural decomposition of waste.

By preliminary estimates environmentalists, the decay time in wildlife of a plastic film or bottle is from one hundred to two hundred years. This makes the threat of death of all living things under tons very real. plastic waste already in the near future.

Where to take PET waste?

The bulk of household polyethylene waste ends up in ordinary garbage - containers for solid waste, located in the yards of residential buildings. A significant disadvantage Such a disposal method is a heavy contamination of PET with food residues, chemicals, dirt, liquids, etc. Further total mass garbage will need to be sorted, and the plastic itself will require additional cleaning.

Important! Sorting is the best solution today. household waste already at the moment of its ejection, when plastic objects are folded into specially designated storage bins.

Unfortunately, while this method, very popular in European countries, in Russia takes root with difficulty:

1. such containers are not yet available in every yard and not even in every settlement;
2. there is no working penal system for violating the sorting rules, and as a result, even with such “distributors”, other types of garbage often end up in the plastic tank.

You can hand over PET waste:

1. For enterprises directly involved in the processing of PET waste, if they accept them themselves.
2. Recycling points operating in every city - they accept waste paper, scrap metal, plastic, etc. Payment for the delivery of plastic will be cheap, but in this way you will make your contribution to the conservation environment.

What products are made from recycled polyethylene?

The raw materials obtained as a result of recycling plastics are a cheap and high-quality material for the manufacture of a huge number of new useful goods:

• waste with a short period of use - bottles, disposable containers and packaging - are successfully processed into similar products;
• granules of secondary raw materials serve as an additive to primary polyethylene, for example, in the production of pressure pipes or large volume containers;
• blown bottles, canisters food products and household chemicals are used for the subsequent production of drainage pipes, wood-polymer composites (picket fence, terrace board, garden parquet, etc. are made from them);
• film waste from household waste, as well as used film for agricultural purposes, is usually processed into granules for future injection molding products;
• multilayer films as well as cable waste can only be recycled as additives for other pellets, etc.

Depending on the type of PE product, as well as the area where it was used, the methods and equipment used for its recycling.

Recycling of PET products

What does the production of polyethylene waste processing consist of? Full cycle will include several main steps:

Recycling polyethylene at home

Today, the possibility of recycling polyethylene at home occupies many inquisitive minds. For example, there are already developed methods for safe self-incineration of PET containers, proposed by researchers working in the field of ecology.

But there is an alternative view: when burning or even melting plastic, substances harmful to humans and nature are released into the atmosphere. Therefore, self-burning or recycling of polyethylene waste is prohibited; such work can only be carried out by special enterprises with the appropriate license.

PET recycling

Speaking of recycling, today they often mean plastic recycling processes, when recyclables receive " new life and is used to remanufacture products.

Sometimes recycling refers to an alternative to recycling - the physical destruction of waste plastics or their storage in landfills and landfills. Since burning plastic is prohibited, other, more environmentally friendly methods are used to destroy it.

From the point of view of preserving the environment, it is highly effective, for example, - the thermal decomposition of plastics at high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment.

However, a huge amount of plastic waste still ends up just in city landfills.

PET waste recycling is a promising direction in the economy, which is also supported by environmentalists. With the development of technology, the recycling of plastic waste is becoming cheaper for the manufacturer, while at the same time ridding the planet of excess plastic, which is difficult to decompose in natural conditions. The environmental risks that arise during the recycling process cannot be compared with the problems that humanity will face in the near future, since landfills are becoming more and more every year.

Recycling plastic bags is an uptrend in solving waste problems, but there is still room for improvement, according to experts in the field of waste disposal. More and more grocery stores are included in the plastic bag recycling program, which plays important role. Here are some important facts about recycling plastic bags.

Total recycling of waste plastics may grow

About 13 percent of all plastic bags, plastic film and PET bottles are recycled in 2014, according to the State Environmental Protection Agency. Polythene films are used in a wide variety of products, such as packaging materials. The rate of recycling of plastic bags is much lower than that of paper and metal or the recycling of plastic bottles. Almost 60 percent of all metals are recycled in 2014, according to the Agency, while more than 50 percent of paper is recycled in the same year.

Plastic Bag Recycling: Goals. The Association of Manufacturers of Plastic Products, which includes most plastic bag companies in Russia, has set a goal of 40 percent recycling of plastic bags and films by 2018. Achieving this goal will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save electricity to heat 200,000 homes each year, and reduce waste by 100 million kilograms annually.

The danger of plastic bags

One of the biggest dangers of plastic bags is the associated pollution and energy expended on the original. manufacturing process, which mainly involves natural gas. Recycling plastic bags at a waste sorting station, along with many other products made from recycled plastic, a waste disposal company offers a much cleaner production. The amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is reduced by 50 percent, and the energy reduction reaches 70 percent in the process of plastic recycling.

Plastic bags are also responsible for hundreds of thousands of animal deaths at sea and on land. sea ​​turtles extremely vulnerable because the floating plastic bags are like jellyfish, the main food source for turtles. Other marine animals, as well as dogs, goats, cows and other animals on land, have died after eating plastic bags.

The use of recycled plastic

The recycling process of plastic bags and other plastics results in recycled plastic and returns clean plastic granules used to make products ranging from carpets to ski jacket insulation, composite lumber and flooring.

Plastic bags are made from the same substance as all plastic: oil.

Oil materials and products have two main disadvantages: significant amounts of pollution are released during production, and the product is not biodegradable.

In other words, it is difficult to produce and almost impossible to get rid of once produced.

According to the Natural Environment website, between 60 million and 100 million barrels of oil is required to produce plastic bags per year worldwide, and it will take about 400 years for them to completely decompose.

Therefore, plastic bags are best recycled.

The recycling symbol (three closed arrows) is found on most plastic products, but is often a marketing gimmick.

Many packages built by factories cannot be recycled. Most of them end up in landfills. to lie there for the next hundreds of years.

There are, however, biodegradable packages, but in this topic, too, not everything is clear. Is it true that they decompose in nature, or is this another trick to increase sales, we figured it out.

Plastic is a strong, lightweight and cheap material. It can be easily molded into a wide range of products.

Production and use of plastic bags increased over the past 10 years.

Therefore, their reuse, recovery and recycling are extremely important.

You can recycle packages made from:

• polyethylene;
• cellophane;
• other polymers.

Polyethylene

Recycling of polyethylene is important because in most cases it is not biodegradable and can accumulate in landfills for decades. At the same time, the processing of polyethylene is quite easy to implement.

Due to the composition of the waste plastic can be melted to a liquid state.

As it hardens, it is reshaped or extruded, making the material reusable.

Therefore, the recycling of plastic bags can lead to the creation of new, durable products that also are cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Recyclable polyethylene includes bags:

• for shopping;
• from under milk, kefir, etc.;
• for garbage;
• all types of thin and very soft bags are made of low density polyethylene.

Cellophane

As a rule, cellophane is not recyclable, although it can be considered a recyclable material with scientific point vision.

The plastic bag decomposes naturally (because it is not plastic). Therefore, for disposal, it is better to put it in compost.

In the production of cellophane use carbon disulfide and sulfuric acid which may cause contamination.

Therefore, it is necessary to limit burst packets and make the most of each.

Products from other polymers

From films used to make plastic bags, the most common four polymers:

1. High density polyethylene (HDPE).
2. Medium density polyethylene (MDPE).
3. Low density polyethylene (LDPE).
4. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

The vast majority of grocery shopping bags are made from HDPE.

Characteristics of HDPE:

• moderate opacity;
• tendency to bruises;
• high strength;
• lack of ability to stretch.

High-density polyethylene bags tear easily, but because of their strength, they are well suited for use as grocery bags, clothing, and packaging.

PESP resins are less opaque than HDPE, but not as transparent as LDPE.

Bags made from PESP do not stretch and do not have high strength.

PESP is used in consumer packaging for paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper etc.

LDPE is used to make bags with moderate tensile and strength properties, high degree transparency.

LLDPE is slightly thinner than LDPE and has an elastic consistency.

This material usually feels tacky and is used as a stretch film.

All these raw materials are recycled in waste disposal factories. More durable plastic is not recyclable because the material clogs sorting equipment at processing facilities, which leads to its breakdown or stoppage.

Processing technology and equipment

The simplest of the plastic bag recycling processes includes the processes:

• collection;
• sorting;
• grinding;
• flushing;
• swimming trunks;
• granulation.

Manufacturing processes vary depending on the composition or type plastic.

Majority processing enterprises work in two stages:

1. Automatic plastic sorting or manual sorting to eliminate all contaminants from the plastic waste stream.
2. Melting plastic directly into new form or grinding into flakes then melting before final processing into granules.

For recycling plastic bags the following equipment is involved:

• sorting plant;
• plastic injection molding machines;
• extrusion machines
• installations for blow and vacuum molding;
• molding and thermoforming equipment;
• other equipment depending on the level of production.

Disposal of packages at home

Besides that plastic bags reusable and reusable in the kitchen, at home and in the garden, they can also be recycled at home. The result is the desired durable plastic sheets for crafts and further use.

To do this, you need accumulated plastic bags (at least 100 pieces), ordinary parchment for baking, an iron and scissors, and an oven.

The bags must be pre-washed and dried. It is better to use HDPE bags, and color and patterns don't matter.

Having cut off the handles, the bottom and cutting the side, we add the resulting rectangles in layers. The layer should consist of no more than 5 packages.

On a heat-resistant surface (plywood, OSB) we place a large sheet of parchment, fold the first 5 bags on top and lay another sheet of parchment.

iron at average temperature ironing the sheets starting from the middle towards the edges. If the sheets are poorly fused, then we increase the temperature, if holes appear, we reduce it.

Having chosen the desired temperature, we iron the remaining stacks of sheets.

Next comes the adhesion of five-layer sheets to each other. We also iron the first two five-layer sheets, but at a higher temperature. On the resulting we impose the next five-layer soldering and iron it again.

Sheets must be added to the thickness you need, applying to different sides of the soldered stack (i.e., it is better to turn over).

The sheets are quite dense, so already a five-layer soldering can be applied anywhere you want.

But for better sheets they need bake in the oven:

1. Place on a baking sheet parchment.
2. We lay out a multilayer briquette on parchment.
3. Cover with a sheet of parchment.
4. Place a baking sheet on top as well.
5. Place on the top tray a couple of bricks for weighting.
6. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C.
7. We take it out and wait until it cools down, without removing the bricks.
8. When cool, check the edges of the polyethylene. They must be uniform.. If not, place in the oven at a higher temperature up to 230 ° C.
9. For the received briquettes trim the edges.
10. We use recycled polyethylene.

Related videos

We offer you to watch a video about the disposal of plastic bags:

Conclusion

The goal of plastic bag recycling is to reduce plastic pollution rates while reducing the cost of purchasing start-up materials for the manufacture of new plastic products.

This approach helps to save energy and free the environment from pollution. plastic bags, and the reuse of polyethylene at home will save the cost of buying some things and materials.

In contact with