We need to change the way we look at our materials.
This goes for customers who want to leave a more positive impact in their day-to-day life, such as recycling newspaper and turning off the sink when brushing their teeth. This goes for businesses that are starting to see a notable carbon footprint building up. Recyclable plastic is particularly high on the list for many people. A glance at recent statistics and it’s not hard to see why. Notoriously damaging to the surrounding environment and to local wildlife, our colored bottles and blow molded containers need to do extra work to benefit our brands without harming everyone, and everything, up and down the line.
How can you incorporate recyclable plastic throughout your manufacturing process?
You won’t be able to truly appreciate the benefits of custom blow molding until you see the statistics that have so many businesses taking a step back. Recent estimates have found Americans will use two and a half million plastic bottles every hour. In fact, the plastics industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the United States, beating out even wood, plaster and glass. Back in 2013 over 100 billion pounds of plastics, as well as resins, were manufactured. This was a notable increase over just the year prior, to boot.
What about the rest of the world? Thanks to the tireless efforts of environmental scientists and data analysts the world is estimated to both make and consume around 600 billion pounds of plastic every single year. This grows by roughly 5% annually, as well. The United States alone employs around one million workers in the plastics industry, contributing $350 billion to the economy through dozens of different industries. It’s not at all hard to see the appeal of recyclable plastic both environmentally and financially.
Recycling is commonly discussed as a sustainable habit, but implementing it is another story entirely. According to studies provided by the National Association For PET Container Resources (or NAPCOR), over 5,000 million pounds of PET bottles and jars were available for recycling back in 2013. Around 80% of those bottles were either used for food or beverages. Compare this to another study that found there very well could be more plastic than fish in the ocean over just the next four to five decades. How can you incorporate recyclable plastic into your bottom line and beyond?
Plastic is a popular material for being better for holding product as well as shipping. Just two pounds of plastic ha the potential to deliver 1,300 ounces (or roughly 10 gallons) of a beverage such as juice or water. Compare this to aluminum, where you’d need three pounds to bring the same amount of product, or steel, which requires around eight pounds or so. Glass is perhaps the worst on the list, requiring 40 pounds to deliver the same quantity. When you invest in recyclable plastic you get the best of both worlds and create a sustainable process that can last the decade.
Today custom made bottles and the custom plastic bottle design are enhanced with the aid of blow molding machines. Your standard blow molding machine model consists of three major parts. You have the extruder, the accumulator die and molds from which containers of different shapes or different sizes are processed. Manufacturing companies are able to choose between the extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding and stretch blow molding through the industrial process. Recent statistics have found bottles and containers comprise over 50% of HDPE packaging products.
Smart, functional and, most of all, eco-friendly. Recyclable plastic is here to stay.