The Recycling Process

This follow up video documents the selling of the plastic that we helped prepare for recycling at the school. Once the boys have shredded enough shampoo bottles to fill the bags at the school, they load up a truck and head off to the weighing station. After weighing the trucks, they go to the factory that is buying the plastic from them. Adham was nice enough to ask the factory owners if we could have a look at the factory. Once inside, we saw another side of the process that really brought to fruition the cycle that trash goes through in Garbage City. http://sharing.theflip.com/session/9ac142da0a508c77741ec69500ac9043/video/16656691

In the video, you will see they start by cleaning the plastic. This is necessary because if you were to see the pieces of shampoo bottles before, you would notice a grimy filth covering it, which has to be removed before processing. After properly cleaned and dried out, they heat it and melt it down. This is done by the spinning machine with a flame, which then funnels the melted material into a larger system of machines. From here, the plastic material stretched and cooled down in the water. The whole thing ends with the cutting of the plastic into little beads. These are then put into bags, weighed, and sold to consumers of the material from various parts of the world.

The process is simple yet mesmerizing, as they have perfected the art of recycling, something the most advanced countries in the world can’t yet seem to make successful and profitable.

--Casey