I am an Engineering student who’s currently taking Materials. I asked my Professor this but his answer seems to be confusing me even more. Can someone explain this topic to me like I am 5?
In: Chemistry
We *can*, we just don’t wanna. In Sweden, nearly all plastic bottles are recyclable. You pay a deposit when you buy them, and the deposit is refunded when you return it to a collection machine in a store. All stores over a certain size (nearly all grocery stores) are required to have a collection machine.
The largest manufacturer of these machines is Tomra: https://www.tomra.com/en
I can’t remember the name of the chemical but it’s because they leak it in the water, very slowly but enough to make us sick, it’s also a plastic that degrades over time, you can reuse it it just has risks
When you recycle plastic you introduce contaminants and impurities and degrade the plastic to the point where it just wouldn’t really be that safe to drink from them again. If you do it once or twice maybe it’s fine but the decomposition contaminants can leech into your water and why would you want that. Recycled plastic is often re-used far away from any food so it can’t leech. Polyester clothing is often made with some recycled plastic.
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