Eli5 why are so few plastics recyclable? Why cant you just melt it down and reuse it like glass?
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Okay, kiddo! So you know how sometimes you have a toy that’s made out of plastic and you want to make it into something else? Well, it’s a little bit tricky with plastic because it’s not like glass, which is easy to melt down and turn into something new.
Plastic is made of lots of different little pieces called polymers, and they don’t always play nice together when we try to melt them down. They kind of get all mixed up and make a big old mess, and it’s hard to turn that mess back into something useful.
But don’t worry, we’re working on it! Some types of plastic can be recycled, like the kind they make soda bottles out of. And we’re trying to make more and more types of plastic that are easier to recycle. But until then, we have to be extra careful with our plastic toys and make sure they don’t end up in the trash where they’ll never turn into anything new. Got it?
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