| By :
Nadine Davis
There are many people in our community now who are quite accepting of the idea of recycling. Through a process of education, people have now been able to see the benefits of recycling, not only to the environment, but in terms of energy conservation and cost savings. While this education has seen an increase in the amount of material being presented for recycling, it hasn't always followed that the general public understands how important it is for the right type of material, especially plastics, to end up in the recycling bin. This lack of knowledge often results in contamination of the loads picked up from the kerbside, resulting in waste and increased costs for everyone. Of all the items collected by councils and industrial waste collectors for recycling, PVC plastic is one of the most misunderstood. The way to identify this type of plastic is by looking at the inside of the triangle to see what number is inside it. If the number is 3, the item is made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC. Most recyclable plastics need to be separated before they can be processed, however each plastic has a different chemical composition or polymer which has a different temperature for melting them, making them incompatible with other plastics. The plastics must be separated into their own polymer stream to boost their recyclable value. PVC or vinyl is a thermoplastic meaning it softens on heating and hardens when cooled. In industry, it is easy to recycle as it is clean waste in this environment, and can be re-processed in-house and used for a number of applications. It is used for larger items such as window frames, cabling, water and drainage pipes and floor coverings. PVC plastic is taken to a registered recycler where large industrial complexes have collecting systems to make the recycling process much easier. There are several in most states. Because of contamination by other materials, it was difficult to recycle PVC bottles. In 2000, no PVC bottles collected kerbside were recycled in Australia. Improvements over the past 10 years mean that 94 per cent of all households in Councils with populations of 10,000 or more have access to recycling services which collect PVC bottles. As Australia is an urbanized society, most medium to large sized Councils will now pick up PVC for transfer to a materials recovery facility. Plastic manufacturers have also been active in consumer education and working with councils to increase the amount of material being recycled. As new technology becomes available and the collection infrastructure becomes more sophisticated, the amount of PVC plastic being recycled will increase, saving energy, reducing the use of natural resources and prolonging the PVC cycle.
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