Most of us use plastic in some way or another on an almost daily basis. Not only is plastic involved in the packaging of our food — it works into our lives in ways most people can’t even imagine. Certainly, we should think more about what goes into creating the plastic products we use. After all, these plastic products are major parts of the manufacturing industry, and industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. It can even be used to package our medications. The fact is, however, that plastic isn’t always a positive in our world. It can easily be misused or discarded, rather than being recycled properly. The more we know about how plastic products are made, the better we will be able to appreciate and use them — as well as recycle them. Many plastic products are made using plastic injection molding services; yet many people haven’t heard about these services, let alone understand how they work. Let’s look into how plastic injection molding services work, what it creates, and how we can make sure that plastic products are only positive products, rather than becoming waste in landfills.
Plastic Injection Molding Services: How They Work
Plastic injection molding services, as previously mentioned, have been used to make everything from food packaging to pharmaceutical packaging. These types of packaging products are often known as flexible plastic packaging. How does it work? Well, this manufacturing process is easier to understand than you might think — certainly less complicated than its name might imply. Essentially, it works through injecting plastic into a mold of some kind, creating the necessary part or product as the plastic sets. However, injection molding is not limited to plastic. It can be used with metals, in which case the process is known as diecasting, as well as glasses, elastomers, confections, and more. The plastics used are often thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. The process may be simple, but it needs to be carefully monitored and perfected. It’s important that, even when you’re making a product like plastic bottles, the mold is perfect. Should there be any flaws in the mold, the product created will be ruined. These molds can create multiple products at once, and are great for large scale production — as long as they’re handled properly. But what concerns many people is not how many plastic products are made, but what happens to them after they’ve been used.
PET: Recycling Plastic Bit By Bit
It’s true that we can do more to recycling than we perhaps are right now. Recycling should be a priority for everyone — it’s a part of preserving the world for future generations. However, there is a way we can recycle plastic, particularly PET plastic — that is, the type of plastic labeled with the #1 code. Currently, there are 9,400 curbside drop-off and 10,000 collection programs for PET plastic in the U.S. It’s not that there isn’t a way to recycle this plastic — it’s that, perhaps, there isn’t enough knowledge about it. It’s estimated that about 100% of material from a PET product can be recycled — repeatedly. In 2013, about 1.8 million pounds of PET were recycled, as it’s accepted by almost all recycling programs in the U.S. People just need to make the effort to recycle these products. The fact is that we can’t live without the services these products provide.
Plastic Products: The Benefits
There are many benefits drawn from using certain plastic products. When it comes to food packaging, plastic can product food from contamination, and preserve it. According to experts, one pound of plastic packaging can reduce food waste by 1.7 pounds. But that’s not all — perhaps the biggest benefit of using plastic products is the existence of medicinal dosage cups and child-proof containers. These containers can save lives, and at this moment are most easily made with plastic.
To prevent the misuse of plastic products, we must educate people not only about how they’re made, but how they can be used again and again through recycling.
