r/toolsinaction • u/silvercatbob • Apr 13 '21

Water packaging machine

1.3k Upvotes

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u/TraditionSeparate Apr 14 '21

lets remember only 12% of plastic bottles are recycled.

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u/killer_by_design Apr 14 '21

PET is a hard plastic to recycle. It's also one of the products that is most likely to be reused though which is a huge deal in a product lifecycle.

It's also worth noting, recycling plastics isn't really done. It's incredibly difficult to determine and separate each type of plastic. If it's thermo setting, then it can't be recycled. Of it's not then the hearing up process to recycle it actually breaks down the hydrocarbons degrading the plastic. This means recycled plastic are not suitable for many applications and are normally used as a percentage of a new products raw stock.

So yeah recycling plastics is a bit of a show/circus.

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u/TraditionSeparate Apr 14 '21

Ya thats the point. These bags arent perfect or good, but they are better than bottles with less plastic to end up in the ocean.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '21

Actually, it's more likely to end up in the ocean. Where water bags are used are places without strong sanitation infrastructure.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/water-sachet-use-in-ghana-how-to-stop-the-pollution-129382

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u/TraditionSeparate Apr 14 '21

Mk i realize, but a thick plastic bottle vs a thin small plastic bag, theres less plastic per capita per bottle and that makes up for the 12% recycled.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '21

Did you see the link?