The recyclate, as the sorted and shredded used plastic is also called, can be used to manufacture new plastic products. This saves raw materials and energy and is good for the environment because recycled material can be used for the production of new products instead of having to produce new plastic from fossil mineral oil.
The finite nature of resources is increasingly becoming the focus of public attention, and it is also becoming more and more obvious that recycling plastics is a good example of how things can be done better: instead of using resources only once, plastics become part of an ecologically and economically sensible material cycle in which they are used again and again.
In the mechanical recycling of plastic, plastic waste is sorted according to the individual types of plastic, washed, melted down and processed into recyclate. This recyclate is then the starting material for new plastic products, making the production of new plastics superfluous.
Unlike alternative materials, plastic packaging is not waste after its first use, but a resource to be used.
