Plastic gets used in a lot of things. Much of that plastic is single-use plastic and doesn't get recycled the way that it should. That plastic can end up in landfills and waterways. Eventually, anything that ends up in a waterway is going to end up in the ocean. There are millions of tons of plastic floating in the ocean, choking it and killing sea creatures. However, there are also companies that are collecting the plastic that ends up in the ocean and along the coast and doing something about it.
Coastal and Marine Plastic Textiles
One thing that those companies are doing is taking that plastic and turning it into textiles. Those textiles are then turned into things like backpacks, rugs, shoes, and even clothing. The material made from recycled marine and coastal plastic is durable and can have a good, long life. While you may hear plastic textiles and think of something tacky looking, the fact is that the plastic, once it is turned into yarn and then fabric, can be dyed or printed on, and doesn't feel plasticky. So, how are plastic textiles made?
Shredded
When plastic is all gathered together and sorted out appropriately, it all gets shredded into tiny little flakes. Shredding the plastic down into flakes makes it easier for the plastic to go into the next step, and makes the process much quicker overall. Shredding also makes sure that everything is a universal size, which is important.
Melting
After being shredded, all those little flakes go into a big container so that they can be melted. Quick and easy melting is part of why the plastic is shredded into a common size. If everything is the same size, it's going to melt at the same time, instead of some things melting really quickly while there are other items still waiting to melt. The melted plastic is then turned into pellets.
Extrusion
The pellets are then put into another machine that extrudes them into yarn. It would be like extruding spaghetti from a pasta machine. The plastic yarn is then wound onto huge spools so that they can continue to be processed. When the yarn is all processed, it can then be knitted or woven into fabric and turned into clothes, shoes, or backpacks.
Recycled coastal and marine plastic textiles help to get and keep plastic out of the ocean and help to make sure that natural resources aren't used up as quickly.
To learn more, visit a site like BionicYarn.com.
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