The diagram illustrates the process of how glass and plastic containers are recycled. Overall, there are eight stages to recycle both glass and plastic bottles or jars. For both, the first stage starts with the collection of the used items, whereas the last stage is the production of new products.
When the newly available glass and plastic products are used for a period of 3-8 weeks, these are collected over 5-10 days and transported to the recycling centres for further processing. While the plastic goods are sorted by thickness and quality, those made of glass are separated by colours. Subsequently, the alike plastic materials are bundled together, and then shredded. In the next phase, those shreds undergo washing, and later are melted and reshaped in the same machine to give rise to a newer usable one.
For the glass particles, after being sorted, these are crushed and then washed. Afterwards, those are melted and reshaped using separate machines, which is unlike the recycling steps of plastics. The reshaped glass containers are then made available to the users.