What really happens to a plastic bottle after you put it in the recycling bin?

Your bottle starts its journey when picked up from your bin and sent to a Material Recovery Facility—joining other recyclables for sorting.

At the MRF, machines and workers sort items by type while removing non‐plastic contaminants to keep quality high.

Next, bottles are crushed and washed—turned into clean plastic flakes as labels, dirt, and impurities are removed.

Finally, materials get reprocessed—often downcycled into lower-quality products or blended with new plastics. Rinse and sort carefully to boost recycling success!.