Bags containing discarded plastic material collected from the environment and ready for recycling.
Good morning my dear friends, I'm Stephen from Nigeria. It's been quite a while since the last time I wrote to this awesome community. This beautiful morning I'll be sharing with you my diary on how I spent six hours of my day in a plastic recycling firm.
I woke up 6:12am, being a Saturday I would be free most of the time since I won't be going to work. I had scheduled today for a visit to a friend whom I want to invite to become a Steemit user. He is actually a Supervisor at the above stated factory. He works six days a week so he asked me to visit him at work today.
I did my devotional after waking up and took my bath. I came out of the bathroom and had my breakfast. I looked at the clock and it was 8:12am so I left home for a visit to my friend at work about 25km from where I live. I got to the factory at 9:23am and met him expecting me. We greeted then took my first picture with him.
Me and the factory Supervisor.
It was my first time being in a plastic recycling firm so I was really excited surrounded by all the novel phenomena. He sensed my excitement and volunteered to give me a guided tour of the factory and the activities. He started by giving me a brief lecture on rubber, the emergence of plastic, it's impact on the environment and the need for recycling.
The supervisor showing me an original lump of rubber, the type gotten from the sap of the rubber tree( Hevea brasiliensis ).
After his brief talk on rubber, plastic and recycling he took me on a tour. Our first point of stop was at the reception where used and discarded plastic materials are received at a store in the factory. Here he showed me hundreds of big bags filled with discarded plastic materials as shown in my title page photo. I couldn't help imagining the hazzards such would bring to bear on the immediate environment if they were left unrecycled.
Opening one of the bags the Supervisor showed me the plastic waste content of the bags.
He opened some of the bags and allowed me into the contents of such bags.
Plastic electric wire casings.
Plastic wrappers for canned drinks.
Discarded plastic sachet for drinking water, diaper wrappers and wrappers for other finished goods.
The next point of our tour took us into the factory with their machines and the recycling process.
Waste plastic shredder.
Washing trough.
First he showed me a machine that washes and shreds plastic materials in preparation for the heating process. Later he took me to a pile of shredded plastic materials that came out of the plastic washing and shredding machine.
Pile of shredded washed plastic materials.
Next he showed me how the shredded plastic are bagged up in sacks and stored aside.
Sacks of shredded plastic waste
Close up of shredded plastic waste.
He made me understand that the shredded plastic waste are later moved into a heating machine that melts them and shapes them into long threads of 1cm wide plastic wires that would be cut down into tiny plastic pellets in another machine.
Where plastic are melted
Plastic pelleting machine.
Finished plastic pellets.
plastic pellets ready to be made into new plastic bags.
When the pellets are ready, some of them are sold off to companies that manufacture plastic items like chairs, kitchen ware and plastic water bottles while the rest are made into plastic bags of different sizes right here in the same factory.
The plastic pellets meant to be made into bags are scaled and measured into the receptacle of another machine that further melts the pellets and shapes them into plastic bags.
Measuring scales
Supervisor loading measured pellets into plastic bag manufacturing machine.
Melting pellets.
Air blown into melted pellets.
Bags shaped out of melted pellets.
Bags rolled into bundles.
Bundles of finished plastic bags from recycled plastic waste.
By 3:30pm I was done with the tour by my guide on recycling waste plastic products. I spent an extra 20minutes with him intimating him about Steemit. He showed interest and I hope to announce him soon as my Steemit recruit.
I left for home and got home 5:56pm. I watched TV with my family then went into the bathroom for my bath. I came out then we all had dinner before I retired to my room for the night's rest at 9:43pm.
I hope you all enjoyed my diary. Thanks for reading and by for now.