Where do empties end up?
For empty containers, there’s an afterlife.
Like a Kung-Fu Master, recycled beverage containers have a chosen path – a path that puts them into machines that shred or melt them for other uses. Here’s a quick guide to what happens to containers once their tasty beverage runs out:
PET BOTTLES: Ever since tap water turned to acid in the late 90s, people have been rapidly consuming water in plastic bottle form. Luckily, these containers have many different uses. Like being turned into a plastic fibre for carpets.
GABLE-TOP CARTONS: These containers are turned into corrugated cardboard, paper napkins and other papers. In other words, paper just got a whole lot more interesting.
ALUMINUM CANS: Aluminum cans are melted down and reformed into more cans. So, like your favourite vampire, they’ll live forever.
BI-METAL: Beverage containers made of metal tins are baled and melted down to be turned into scrap metal, which can then be used for construction rebar and building an army of RoboCops.
TETRA: Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, drink boxes are transformed into cardboard boxes of all shapes, sizes and colours.
POLY CUP: The plastic in these containers is mixed with other types of plastic to make park benches for elderly people to rest their bones and talk to squirrels.
GLASS: Clear glass containers are crushed, formed into tiny spheres and added to road paint to mark the lines on roads. Coloured glass is used to make fibreglass insulation for homes and acts as a fascinating talking point for every carpenter on the planet.
HDPE: These containers are squashed and shredded and the resulting plastic flakes are manufactured into buckets and pails. Like the kind of bucket you put next to your bed after a kegger.
BAG IN A BOX: For bag-in-a-box containers, the plastic bag and box are separated and recycled. The pulp manufactured from bag-in-a-box and gable-top containers are fairly coarse, so the new paper made from it is quite strong. That makes it suitable for tough objects like cardboard boxes or cardboard Chuck Norris statues.