Recycled Plastics Revolution

For well over 100 years, humans have been finding new and better ways to incorporate plastic into nearly every part of daily life. It’s only been in the last 40 years or so that we’ve begun to realize that the disposal of plastics can be problematic; only in the last decade have we begun to make a serious attempt to find a solution to the problem. Today, sustainability has become everyone’s concern and the plastics industry recognizes the need to find ways to both generate plastics from environmentally-friendly materials as well as divert disposable plastics from landfills for reuse in new products.

Initial attempts by many municipalities to a plastics recycling program became costly to run with no outlet for the end supply. Manufacturers often found recycling processors not yet capable of producing scrap plastic that met the quality standards necessary for their intended applications. But with tax incentives from the government for businesses to incorporate a percentage of recycled materials into products and packaging, and the global push to expand and improve our use of this resource, recycled plastics are finally coming of age.

Around the globe, plastic recycling facilities are finding ways to improve their processes and provide a quality product that can be put back into use for nearly every kind of plastic application. The range of recyclable plastics has also expanded to include types of plastics not considered recyclable in the past. The publics’ demand for conservation has inspired rapid development and as a result recycled plastics are being used in ways never before envisioned. From pipes and hoses to clothing and accessories, from landscape materials and decking to bicycles and automotive interiors, and now even in 3-D printing, plastics seem to have limitless uses.

At Preferred Plastics, we’re taking an active role in this recycling revolution. Scrap plastic generated from product development and first-run extrusions are ground up and reused in secondary runs. Recycled plastics are purchased on the open market for many of the products we manufacture. Additional conservation and savings are realized by our customers who participate in our scrap buy-back program where clean scrap is returned to be re-extruded into their products.

Recycled plastics are the new trend in going green and Preferred Plastics is leading the way with innovative products using recycled plastics.