The flowchart illustrates the stages involved in the recycling of glass and plastic containers, tracing the process from collection to the new product.
Overall, the procedure follows a cyclical, multi-stage sequence for both plastic and glass that begins with recycling materials being collected and transported to the recycling centre, and ends with the resulting material being shaped into the necessary forms.
Concerning the details, in the initial stages, the collected waste is transported to the recycling centre for five to ten days, where glass is sorted by color, and plastic is sorted by thickness and quality. Once the sorting stage has been completed, plastic passes through a bundling mechanism, which presses it into cubes that are then shredded into small pieces. At the same time, glass, which has been sorted by color, falls directly into the crushing mechanism.
The remaining stages deal with refreshing treatment and final forming. The processed material is washed, and subsequently melted and reshaped, which results in a new product. Although in the case of plastic, melting and reshaping are done by a single machine, glass is processed by separate machines. After these processing stages have been finished, the new product is sent to consumers, who give the used product back into the recycling cycle after three to eight weeks.