Check out this little video that shows you the life cycle of a plastic product, and how it can serve through to many of its generations!

For most of us, plastics have become an indispensible part of everyday life – from the cars we drive to the packets our sandwiches come in, to the Valpré and Vitamin water bottles we so love to drink. But know before you throw! Our throw-away attitude to many plastics seems increasingly unsound. The majority of the 100 million tonnes of plastic manufactured each year are made from oil, and as world stocks are depleted and the cost rises, supplies of affordable plastics produced from virgin chemicals are unlikely to be sustainable.

A little bit of scientific information:  PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles are a prime example of this: in the UK alone, it costs £100 million a year to dispose of these used items, while if correctly recycled and resold, the polymer materials could be worth up to £27 million. Similarly, if other plastics can be recycled at relatively low cost into high value, virgin-like materials and sold at a premium, companies could make large profits while reducing environmental impact and our dependency on oil.