What is a plastic bottle made of, is it interesting to know?

It is known to everyone and is used as packaging for a wide variety of products: water, juices, soft drinks. What is a plastic bottle made of? Such packaging plays an ubiquitous role in our consumers' lives. With our growing awareness of the environmental issues that surround plastic, many have become interested in the life cycle of this material, from production to the subsequent disposal in a landfill or in recycling. Awareness of this process can make consumers think more about how they use and manage waste.

Composition, basic properties

What is a plastic bottle made of? It all starts with the receipt of raw materials - oil production, which comes from distant fields. After receiving it for further processing, everything is loaded into containers, onto tankers and sent to plants. What is a plastic bottle made of? From oil. When heated and mixed hydrocarbons with chemical catalysts, which causes polymerization, plastic is obtained. In addition, in the process of processing various components are distinguished from it. Further, the refinery receives gas, fuel oil and other products. What are plastic bottles made of? Most of them are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET, known as plastic). One of the important chemical parameters is viscosity, which is determined by the size of the polymer molecules. What are plastic bottles made of, how are they made from this material? Polyethylene terephthalate is widely used in Russia for the production of various types of preforms, the so-called "preforms". Then, after heating, shapes of all kinds are made (blown out) of them, primarily plastic bottles.

What a plastic bottle is made of, what else can it be replaced? Not everyone knows that some manufacturers, taking care of the environment, use bioplastics from plant materials (Bioplastics). To do this, they are first subjected to processing to form polymers. This is followed by a conversion process, resulting in a new bioplastics material. It is believed that this is better for the environment, since it does not require the extraction and processing of oil, non-renewable resources. However, such a replacement of plant materials quickly decomposes and is not stored for a long time. In addition, in cases of long exposure, bottles of such material may deform and leak. There is also an opinion that in the situation with bioplastics, it also does not do without environmental problems. Its production requires large areas of agricultural land for growing crops. In addition, they consume large amounts of water, fuel and other resources.

Trash

Around the world, the production and consumption of plastic containers is constantly increasing. As a result, garbage is stored that does not decompose. At the same time, plastic bottles are a very common form of waste around the world. However, thrown away, not all of them end up in landfills. The world's oceans are filled with such garbage that poses a serious threat to many marine organisms. Instead of total destruction, the plastic actually breaks up into very small segments that can be consumed by the inhabitants of the oceans. The small city of Concord (Massachusetts) is the first settlement in the United States to ban the sale of water in plastic bottles.