Plastics

Plastic is manufactured from ethylene – a gaseous by-product of the oil refining process. There are many different types of plastic compounds. An identification code or number appears on each plastic container that can be recycled, inside the recycling logo (the triangle shape of arrows).

Accepted for Recycling

• Grades 1 and 2 plastic bottles and jars only. Look for the number inside the recycling logo.
• Grade 1 – soft drink, fruit juice, and water bottles, jam and peanut butter jars, etc.
• Grade 2 – milk and cream bottles, detergent bottles, etc.

Preparation

• Remove all caps and lids.
• Rinse and squash.

All Brite processes 3,500 tonnes of plastic each year. To give an idea how much this is, 25,000 2-litre milk bottles weigh one tonne. Lay all the bottles and jars that we handle end to end and they would stretch 21,875 kilometres. This would cover the distance from Cape Reinga to Bluff and back – almost eight times!