The diagram illustrates the nine-step cyclic process for recycling used plastic bottles.
Overall, the bottles go through a loop starting from initial collection to manufacturing new goods, which also get recycled after use.
Specifically, the first stage involves consumers placing used plastic bottles into designated recycling bins. The bottles are then gathered and transported to recycling centers. Here, workers manually sort and separate the plastic bottles from other materials. The chosen bottles undergo compression into large blocks.
Next, the blocks are fed into crushing machines to produce small plastic fragments. These fragments are then washed thoroughly. The clean fragments are melted and converted into plastic pellets. In the following step, the pellets are heated to form raw plastic material. This raw material is refined and rolled into sheets or filaments. The plastic is then utilized to manufacture a variety of end products such as t-shirts, pens, and bags. Finally, after being used, these products are discarded into recycling bins once again, thus perpetuating the closed-loop process.