I used to think that plastic water bottles could be infinitely recycled, that every time I tossed one into the blue bin, it eventually came out to be another plastic bottle. As it turns out, that’s not the case. Some materials can be recycled infinitely, but plastic is not one of them.
So if a recyclable isn’t reborn as the original item, where does it go? I found out most recyclable items are recycled down (or “downcycled”). That means your water bottle may turn into a synthetic fabric or material for a park bench.
But can that park bench be recycled? Can my “recycled” notebook be re-recycled? Just how many times can that material be recycled?
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Plastic: Once or twice
When it is recycled, the quality of the plastic…