Quiz Time!

This week we've been learning different types of quadrilaterals.

What are You Wearing?

What are You Wearing?

Have you ever wondered about what you’re wearing? If I told you some of your clothes are made out of recycled plastic bottles, would you believe me? Well, it’s true. The process is time consuming and sometimes dangerous.

Firstly the bottles are delivered the bottle recycle center where the first step begins. The bottles are shredded, this releases any leftover liquid. The shredded bottles are wrapped up and put in containers ready to be shipped around the world.

The recycled bottles are shipped to China where they are valuable to the clothing industry. The workers sort the plastic into colours, the clear plastic will be made into white material that can be dyed. The plastic goes through a machine where the bottle caps are made into a plastic that floats so the workers can catch them easily. The stickers are put into a 'bath' of corrosive caustic soda. The workers have to be careful because it’s not good for their skin, but, very good for taking off stickers.

Now what's left is a pile of shredded clear plastic but, it's rather wet after its 'bath'. The plastic it put into an oven where it's mixed with some light coloured plastic. To produce cloth you need some light coloured material in the mix. The plastic stays in the oven for ten hours, slowly drying out. When the plastic shreds are ready the workers move their cart underneath the drum and the plastic falls out. The workers have to be careful of their heads as other drums spin.

It's hard to make any material with just little shreds so another step is needed. The mixture is sent through a rotating screw which heats up to about 270 degrees celsius. This melts the plastic and forces it through a sieve, which makes the melted plastic strings, the strings are emptied into a container below. We now have thread but it isn't strong enough to make cloth yet. The weak thread is combined and stretched several times while being heated, this bonds the fibers together. It's taken a while to make the fabric but... the next part of the process it to tear it apart again. The fluff that is made it the raw substance you need to make polyester, however, that takes place in another factory altogether. So, it's balled up and sent on it's way.

Polyester looks like cotton wool but it's an entirely man-made substance, created by your old bottles. The next machine scraps in into a very rough cloth which is loaded and ready to be carded, carding is where bonded fibers are brushed together so they all lie in a similar direction. This strengthens the material so therefor the polyester is ready to be made into thread.

Finally, the next machines tease it and spin off mile after mile of newly made thread.

The material is collected on large bobbins. Lastly, the machine weaves all the threads into a new sheet of polyester. It then goes through two more machines to make it smooth, it's then given to the clothes makers to make our clothes.

Remember those plastic bottles you recycled a couple months ago? Well, you may be wearing them right now! In conclusion, I think making clothes out of recycled bottles is a good thing, taking something with no use and turning it into something people use everyday.