Eli5 why are so few plastics recyclable? Why cant you just melt it down and reuse it like glass?
In: 468
Some things can be formed, melted, reformed, melted, reformed etc.
An example would be aluminium, which can be melted and reformed. Or water > ice cubes > water > ice cubes in and endless cycle
But some things cannot be reformed. Once you’ve changed it, you can’t change it back.
An example would be an egg. Once you’ve cooked/fried/scrambled an egg, you can’t undo that. Or if you use the egg to bake a cake, you can’t unbake it and get the egg back so you can use it in something else.
Some plastics behave like aluminium. Some plastics behave like eggs.
Latest Answers