Imagine you’re a bit of plastic, ready to embark on your journey from humble petroleum origins to serving a useful purpose in the world.
Here is an overview of the key stages and processes you’ll encounter along the way.
Created at the Cracker
Your story begins deep underground, as crude oil. After extraction, you’re sent to a steam cracker, where hydrocarbons like ethylene and propylene are produced using intense heat.
These materials are essential for creating all kinds of plastic products, like water bottles, food containers, piping, flooring, and more. This is where your life as a plastic truly starts to take shape.
Moulded and Shaped
From the cracker facility, batches of ethylene and propylene are sent to various processing plants where they will be polymerised and blended to make plastic resins with specific properties.
Here is where you’ll be melted down and injected or extruded into your initial shape, whether that’s plastic pellets, powders, or sheets.
Products Come to Life
Now you’re ready to become a finished product! Your plastic resins will be sent to manufacturing facilities around the world, where they are reheated and moulded or formed into products using processes like blow moulding, extrusion, thermoforming, rotational moulding, and more.
From shampoo bottles to plastic piping and furniture, this is where you’ll attain your ultimate size, shape, and purpose.
Out Into the World
Hooray, you’ve officially become a new plastic product, ready to be shipped off to retailers or consumers.
Perhaps you’re a yogurt cup headed for the local supermarket or a component in a new smartphone shipping to an electronics store.
You’ll be packed into boxes, loaded onto pallets, and distributed via road, sea, or air until you complete your journey from plant to final destination.
Use Phase
Finally, after what was likely a long and winding trip, you arrive at your end location – this is where your purpose will truly shine.
Maybe you’re unboxed as part of a shiny new gadget gift or gleefully chosen as a storage container for homemade stew.
During use, you provide protection, visibility, insulation, strength, convenience and more. This is what it’s all about – fulfilling your plastic destiny!
Recycling and Beyond
For many plastic items, the journey doesn’t have to end after its initial use phase. You may get recycled into a new plastic product, reused for another purpose, or even upcycled into something completely different.
If not recycled, you’ll likely end up in a landfill or hopefully be incinerated to recover some energy. Most kinds of plastic can be recycled, including white aluminium composite sheet sold by Simply Plastics, allowing for incredible resource efficiency through a circular lifecycle.
There you have it – the life story of plastics like you from production to purpose. An incredible transformation occurs between raw petroleum hydrocarbons and the seemingly infinite array of plastic goods we use daily.
It’s a testament to the wonder of science and modern innovation. Remember to recycle responsibly – you’ll thank yourself one day!
