New video tours plastic recycling facility

The International Bottled Water Association’s (IBWA) consumer website www.bottledwatermatters.com has released a new YouTube video, “Recycling Empty Plastic Bottles,” that gives consumers a good look at how a PET recycling facility converts more than two billion PET plastic bottles each year into useful materials. Most single-serve beverage bottles, food container “clamshells” and thousands of other products are made with PET plastic.

“Most people know that recycling is important, but they may not understand how the process of recycling occurs – how the empty plastic bottles get turned into many other useful objects,” said Tom Lauria, IBWA’s vice president of communications. “This video traces the path that an empty bottles travels, from a bound bale to being made into clean plastic flake that is then heated and converted to make either food-grade recycled PET (rPET) pellets, which are used to make PET containers for food, or rPET fiber which is used in pillows, mattresses and carpeting.”

Filmed at Marglen Industries in Rome, Georgia, the video demonstrates the value, importance and practicality of recycling.

“In the video a Marglen spokesman says one of the biggest issues his recycling businesses faces is not having enough empty bottles to feed their facility,” said Lauria. “United States recycling rates are still too low. This video is a clear message to consumers and municipalities that more needs to be done to capture this valuable material to feed recycled material processing centers rather than feeding landfills. Bottled water containers lead the pack in curbside recycling programs with a recycle rate of 31 percent, double the rate of bottled water container recycling only 5 years ago.”

The bottled water industry fully supports and promotes the recycling of its recyclable plastic bottles and all other plastic containers used for food, beverages, medicines, household cleaners and personal care products.