Plastic

A plastic package is a plastic container, wrapper, bag or bottle used for packaging a product to be sold. You can sort plastic packaging waste into the plastic collection of your property or take them to a Rinki eco take-back point. Other plastic items, such as buckets and garden chairs, can be delivered to Sortti Stations.

 

What is made of plastics? 

Plastic packaging collected from properties and Rinki eco take-back points is turned into raw material for new plastic products at Fortum’s plastic refinery in Riihimäki or similar recycling facilities in other Nordic countries.

In this so-called mechanical recycling, plastic packaging waste is sorted by type of plastic using optical sorters. It is therefore important that different plastics are not nested inside each other and that the caps and lids are separated from the rest of the packaging, as they may be different types of plastic. This keeps the quality of the recycled plastic high. 

In the next stage, recyclable plastics are washed, shredded and granulated, i.e. they are turned into plastic granules for use in the plastics industry. Recycled plastic granules are used to make plastic bags, soil sacks, flowerpots, buckets, dish and toilet brushes, plastic planks and pipes, for example. 

Not all plastic packaging can yet be recycled into recycled plastic in mechanical recycling: for example, styrofoam, some black plastics, biodegradable plastics and combination packaging containing aluminium, for example, are removed and used in energy production.

Today, some plastic packaging is also used for chemical recycling. This refers to dismantling plastic back into raw materials or some intermediate form, such as wax, which can be used as a raw material for new plastic. This type of new plastic is in no way different from plastic made from oil. 

The plastics we collect at Sortti stations are first sorted in Lahti and transported to Wimao Oy in Lappeenranta. Wimao Oy recycles plastic into new composite products in its own production process. The test batches have also been exported elsewhere.