25 Aug What Is Recycling and Where the Material Actually Goes
Recycling is usually explained as a process — collect, sort, reprocess. That explanation stops one step short of the part that decides whether any of it mattered. Material is only recycled once a manufacturer buys the recovered output and runs it through a production line. This article follows the destination rather than the process, covering closed and open loops, downcycling, the realistic ceiling for each of the six common plastics, where recovered polymer re-enters pipe and profile production, what gets rejected and why, and the four forces that decide whether a recycling project pays for itself.
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