What Happens to the Plastic Bottles I Recycle?

Producing plastic bottles from raw materials is very resource and energy intensive. By reusing and recycling plastic bottles as much as we can, we can help to conserve natural resources, such as oil.

Plastic bottles are sorted out according to the type of plastic they are made from (polymer type) and colour.  The Materials Recycling Facility in Smallmead sorts the plastic bottles and bales them, ready to be sent to reprocessors for recycling.

Plastic is then either melted down directly and formed into a new shape, or flaked and then melted down.  A wide range of products can be made from recycled plastic, including new plastic bottles, garden furniture, water butts, compost bins and fleece jackets/jumpers.  In fact it only takes 25 two litre plastic bottles to make an adult sized fleece. 

re3 send materials for recycling in the UK wherever possible and plastic bottles are currently sent to UK based Bayliss Recycling for reprocessing.

Why can't I recycle other types of plastic packaging?