The diagram below illustrates the entire process for recycling plastic bottles, from the moment people throw away garbage to the final products made using recycling material.
The process consists of 9 steps.
The first three steps involve the disposal of garbage in the specific rubbish bins and the subsequent sorting of bottles that can and cannot be recycled at the recycling centre.
The fourth and fifth steps concern the processing of plastic bottles. They are first compressed into blocks and then crushed. After this, all the pieces of the crushed blocks are submerged in water, ready to be processed in the next step.
The sixth and seventh steps involve the production of raw materials through the process of heating plastic pellets derived from the pieces of plastic bottles submerged in water. Finally, the last step leads to the production of end products and the initiation of the recycling cycle once again.