The Cylce

Brad Ingenbrandt

Life Cycle of A Plastic Milk Jug

1. Milk jugs sit on the shelf ready to be bought and used by families all over America.
2. After the milk jug is emptied the jug can be recycled with glass metals and papers.
3. Either the recyclables can be taken to a recycling center by a provided truck or by the purchaser. Either way works just find.
4. At the recycling center long conveyer belts separate the types of recyclables. Some places do it by hand others do it by weight. Heavier metals and glass settle to the bottom. Plastics in the middle, and papers and cardboard tend to stay at the top.
5. The separated recyclables move to different areas of the processing center or can be sent out to another place that specializes in specific types of material (glass centers, plastic centers, paper centers, metal centers.)
6. The plastic is shredded into small pieces so that It can later be melted down. To get a specific color of plastic computer technology can take inventory of colors and rid mixtures of specific colors using pressurized air, the process is almost so fast you cant see it.
7. The plastic is melted down in low heat; it can then be made into anything desirable. Most plastic milk jugs are recycled and made into more plastic milk jugs, thus the cycle continues.

-It is important to recycle plastics because plastics come from petroleum. The down side to using petroleum is that petroleum is a non renewable resource there for once you use it once it cant be re created or recycled and used again. That is why it is so important to recycle especially plastics.

The Shredder

I arrived in the big green truck with the other recyclables in a loud giant place. We are shooting down belts and the shiny metal things are being ripped out and glass is going in other direction and next thing I knows I'm in a pile with all the plastics and people of my own kind. We are bundled in piles and moving around. Once again I am on another conveyer belt and we are moving towards blades. I hear the screams of glass being crushed, metal being bent and plastic shredded. I fear this is where my journey ends, my body in thousands of pieces mixed in with other pieces of other plastics and it's getting hot. So hot that all our bits of plastic are blending together. Soon we are a giant hot piece of melted plastic.

Sitting In The Street

once again I am cold and on a shelf. The light comes on and off and people come and go and my milk goes away. Today I think is the day I am done giving my milk and my next journey begins. I am being used often though which is good so my milk is not going bad, maybe because I expire verrrrry soon. I only have about a cup of Milk left in me and it's about to be used. Now that my milks gone I have been put in a green container outside and I'm sitting in the street. next thing I know a giant green truck is picking up the green container I'm in and me and the other jugs and cans are in a giant pile of I guess what are called recyclables. We are driving to a destination unknown.

Sitting on a Shelf

I'm standing here on this cold shelf. My companions are all here around me but we all know this is our final destination. I have this white liquid that is bloating my body and making me weigh a lot more than I actually do. I see women men and even kids walk by me, grabbing my friends and throwing them into green plastic things on wheels or smaller ones that have handles.Its every milk jugs goal to be bought before we expire, and tomorrow is my last day. Today Is April 25 and I expire April 26 so I need to be bought today or else I- holy shiitake Mushrooms there is a hand on my f***** handle and I'm in a cart. I'm on my way to a conveyor belt where green papers and metal discs are being passed back and forth, I just got thrown in a bag and now I'm in metal box moving across the land.