- Plastics

Plastics are modern, synthetic material and still new and developing field of recycling. They are oil and gas based but consumes less than 3% of our oil and gas reserves. Plastics are more difficult to recycle than metal, paper, or glass. One problem is that any of seven categories of plastics can be used for containers alone. For effective recycling, the different types cannot be mixed. Each of these types has identification codes so they can be easily identified and separated.

To deal with polymer identification for plastic recycling purposes, many plastic manufacturers are marking their products with plastics identifications and codes, but that only covers the major plastic groups which are currently being recycled. Many other plastics types are classed as "Others".
Recycling is collection, processing, and reuse of material that would otherwise be thrown away. Materials ranging from precious metals to broken glass, from old newspapers to plastic spoons, can be recycled. The recycling process reclaims the original material and uses it in new products.

- Recycling

Recycling can be done internally (within a company) or externally (after a product is sold and used). Internal recycling occurs when leftover stock and trimmings are salvaged to help make more new product. Since the recovered material never left the manufacturing plant, the final product is said to contain pre-consumer waste. External recycling occurs when materials used by the customer are returned for processing into new products. Materials ready to be recycled in this manner, such as empty beverage containers, are called post-consumer waste.

In fact, using recycled materials to make new products costs less and requires less energy than using new materials. Recycling also reduce pollution because the process minimize the amount of land needed for trash dumps by reducing the volume of discarded waste.