Everything we buy has a use, whether it is a plastic bottle with a refreshing drink or clothes that keep us warm in winter. But when we’re done using them, they become garbage. And most of us know very little about where our things really come from and what happens to them once they become garbage
Garbology is the study of the life of things we buy, use, and throw away. Today, let us take a look at the life cycle of a plastic bottle. It is made from PET plastic (polyethylene terephthalate) and can be identified by plastic resin code 1.
Plastic is made from oil found deep in the ground. This oil is sent to a factory where it is refined and then made into pellets of PET plastic, which are then sent to a bottle making factory where the plastic is heated and moulded into bottles. The bottles, when ready, go to a soft drink factory and then to a shop.
Shops keep PET soft drinks in a fridge and unlike glass, they do not need to return the bottles to the factory. So if you choose PET instead of glass, you can take your soft drink bottle along with you. Once most people have finished drinking the soft drink, they think the life of a plastic bottle ends there.
Up-cycle!
But plastic bottles can easily be washed and reused. Some people even make useful things — pen stands, flower pots, fish traps or lampshades. This is called up-cycling. If you put your plastic bottle in a separate waste bin, which does not have smelly and dirty food or garden waste, your bottle will stay clean. Waste collection workers like clean waste as it can be recycled. When you recycle, you take something which is waste and make something new. In India, factories use PET bottles to make polyester cloth, fleece and even the fibres used to fill pillows and cushions.
Be a hero. Fight pollution!
Reduce : Think before you buy. Do you need to buy a plastic bottle or can you buy the same drink in a glass bottle? Glass soft drink bottles get refilled up to 20 times each year which means you create 20 times less waste!
Reuse : If you need to buy a plastic bottle, >try to find another use for it . You can fill it again or up-cycle it into something useful for you or your family.
Recycle : Finally, once you are done with your plastic bottle, put it in a separate waste bin. You can also earn some pocket money by selling your bottles to a scrap dealer. For example, one kg of PET bottles will fetch anywhere between Rs.25 and Rs.40.
Did you know
Recycling PET bottles uses two thirds less energy than making PET bottles from oil. Around 20 bottles (500ml) are needed to make one large t-shirt (similar to those worn by football teams in the world cup)!
In 2012, 19 million metric tons of PET plastic was produced globally. And only one in six bottles gets recycled.
If you throw your bottle carelessly on the roadside you will be littering. If you put your bottle in a bin with food or garden waste, it will get dirty and smelly. Such waste is not nice to touch and goes straight to a landfill.
Globally, five out of every six PET bottles end up in landfills. Landfills are polluting, spread diseases and are dangerous for us and all living things.
