The Day So Far

Many of you know my son Tim.  He was my Creative Block/Stampers Anonymous business partner for almost 10 years.  Since we dissolved the company and I married, Tim has gone on to bigger and much better things.  He is now a plastics broker and works in the realm of recycling.  It may not seem too interesting to most, but I find it fascinating.  He invited John and I to see his new office and have lunch today.  Every mom is thrilled with that kind of invitation.  Me too.  

Attached to the offices are the warehouses where all the action takes place.  The first warehouse we were in is absolutely huge with aisle after aisle of giant bins and barrels and boxes of material waiting to be processed and/or shipped.  Plastic car parts, Rubbermaid storage bins, unrecognizable plastic parts from who knows what are stacked ceiling high.

Then there are the aisles of plastic wrappers in huge rolls.

The printed wrappers are removed from the hard cardboard rolls so that they cannot be used by anyone else.

Then everything is sent through a huge, really huge machine that turns it all into plastic pellets to be resold and made into something else.

Trucks, big trucks, were lined up to the loading docks receiving literally tons of sold by-product, taking it on to manufacturers who will recycle it all into usable goods.

The beauty of all this is that without companies like this, all this "clean" waste would be dumped into land fills around the country. It was just a few years ago that it all did end up in landfills. Plastic does not decompose, but it can be recycled easily.  I wish you could have seen the amounts just in this one warehouse and they don't even deal in small recycling like plastic bottles.  It definitely made me want to be sure to recycle everything I use.  

 

Comments

[Leslie Gfeller]

Extremely cool! Way to do business, Tim! Glad you and John were able to share in the fascinating process (and lunch)!!!!

[kybarb]

Thanks for posting--I always wondered how they recycle plastic! When I understand the process better I tend to want to do something more--like recycle!!!