From Plastic Bottles to Clothing

We have been learning to write an explanation and create links between our paragraphs. We learnt about the process of plastic bottles being turned into polyester and wrote about it. I found it hard to write my conclusion and sum everything up. I think next time I could create a more detailed diagram.

Planning

How are Plastic Bottles are Recycled into Polyester?

Did you know that plastic bottles are made into some of the clothing you are wearing? Plastic bottles are made into polyester and with New Zealand throwing away millions of plastic bottles every year we have plenty to work with.

Firstly the bottles are shredded to get rid of any unwanted liquid in them so it doesn’t affect the quality of the plastic. The plastic is then wrapped in cellophane and sent on a journey to the textiles factory in China. The plastic is useless to us but is very valuable to the industry in China.

In China the shredded plastic is sorted into coloured and clear plastic. The clear plastic is more valuable because it can be made into white fabric and it can be dyed any colour. Normally there is coloured lids or labels on clear bottles so they head for the baths to be strained off.

Once at the baths workers tip all the plastic into the baths. Their jobs are made easier because the lids are made of a different plastic that floats so it is easy for the workers to remove off all lids with a sieve. There is a separate bath for the stickers in chorsive caustic soda. The soda may be good for removing labels but is bad for the skin so the workers must be careful when working around it. The result is damp clear plastic.

The damp plastic is mixed with light coloured material put into spinning ovens for ten hours. The light coloured material is needed to make the fabric white. The employees must walk back and forth catching all the dried plastic that falls out of the spinning ovens in large containers.

With the now dry plastic it is put through a rotating screw and heated to 270° celsius which melts it. The liquid is pushed through a sieve and made into threads and collected in containers at the bottom. The threads are heated, stretched and combined together. Resulting in cloth which is teared apart, wrapped up and sent to another factory.

At the factory the fluff is carded which makes all the fabric lie in the same direction, this makes the fabric stronger. After the carding the fabric is then teased and spun onto bobbins. A giant loom then draws in all the threads off the bobbins and weaves them into a cloth. The cloth goes through a machine which delicately creates loops onto the fabric. The loops which were made are ripped giving the fabric a more soft furry feel.

This difficult process that travels all around the world eventually comes right back to us as clothing and other items. So all the millions of plastic we carelessly throw away is put to a good use.