Metric weights and measures

Yes, recycled into plastic pellets. The glass milk bottles are are sterilised and reused as actual milk bottles.

1 Like

A little added to this. A company One of the companies I visited produced waste plastics. They recycled them and used the pellets on their production extruders for sheet materials. So it is not new. That was over forty years ago.

do they keep the fur on long??

So are our plastic milk bottles made into more bottles apparently :

When you purchase a bottle of milk, do you ever think what happens to the bottle once itā€™s empty or what happened to it before it arrived in the supermarketā€™s fridge? You might be surprised to learn those two questions have the same answer. Thatā€™s because milk bottles can be recycled in a closed loop, meaning the bottle you put into your recycling bin can become part of a new milk bottle!

Making milk bottles

Plastic milk bottles are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE), and are easily identified by the number ā€œ2ā€ in the recycling triangle on the bottom of the bottle.

Why is HDPE used instead of other materials?

HDPE is strong and lightweight, reducing necessary weight to heavy volumes of liquid. Carrying six pints of milk in a glass jug would be quite heavy and would smash if dropped. Although plastic milk bottles would break if dropped from a height, it wouldnā€™t shatter.

HPDE is a food-grade plastic, so itā€™s safe for storing perishable goods for a short amount of time. It can also be shaped to make a handle, making for easy manoeuvring from the fridge to the counter, especially useful for the elderly or those with disabilities.

How is the plastic turned into milk bottles?

Recycled pellets (rHDPE) are first blended with virgin material which is then directly blow moulded into the shape of the milk bottle ā€“ like blowing up a balloon with warm air! The walls of the mould are cold, so when the plastic hits the walls, it cools and sets.

Yes and the process of turning plastic back into a useful item costs more than the bottle is worth. The reason not many businesses do it.

Yes, I know the plastic milk bottles are recycled. The glass milk bottles are not. They are sterelised and reused.- not recycled.

As it happens I have been to a plastics plant where they collected plastic waste and made the plastic pellets you mentioned. They were then put into an extruder and made various plastics.

Mmm, not really the whole point of recycling is it @OldGreyFox , I would have thought itā€™s more to do with conserving resources whilst at the same time reducing waste? :thinking:

1 Like

Yes Barry, the green revolution doesnā€™t factor in the cost. Thatā€™s why we have an energy and food crisis on our hands and it will get even worse.

1 Like

I do agree on that score Bob, but if we donā€™t recycle then weā€™ll just run out of holes in the ground to dump stuff in, catch 22 reallyā€¦

I thought this was about metric weights and measures!
Have the Greenies even taken over this thread?

1 Like

Quite right, JBR.
Iā€™m gonna blame Besoeker and his glass milk bottle recycling. :rofl:

I agree about recycling Barry, but are we really being serious when we live in a throwaway world. When we were young whippersnappers things got mended instead of slung out, and food came in glass bottles and paper bags, and we all walked to the local shops instead of drive ten miles to the supermarket of our choice. And butter came in blocks by the poundā€¦I put that in so we stayed on topicā€¦
:smiley:

2 Likes

Except that they are NOT recycledā€¦:slight_smile: They are sterilised and reused.
And yes, they are Imperial pints just to stay on track. And thatā€™s 4 ft 8 1ā„2 in ā€¦:slight_smile:

1 Like

Or 4.698 ft or 1.432 mā€¦ :rofl:

Thatā€™ll be about my height if I shrink much more! :smile:

No kiddingā€¦:slight_smile:

But you are an intellectual giant !

Sorry, youā€™re wrong Foxy. The major cost in making a plastic bottle is producing the virgin HDPE in the 1st place. The recycling and reprocessing costs are negligible in comparison to this.

1 Like

We need a thread on Recycling to argue about all this. :grinning:

Thinking about metric at the mo, do others have those bathroom scales like mine, where you can set them to weigh you in either Stones, or Kiloā€™s?

1 Like

Morning Mupsā€¦ :039:
Yes I do Mups and they are set at stones and pounds.
Although Iā€™m going to get rid of all my battery operated stuff and go back to the mechanical ones, because the batteries are always flat when you need them.

1 Like