Paper is recycled by first shredding it into small pieces and mixing it with water. This mixture is beaten into a mush-like pulp which flows onto a moving screen through which most of the water passes. The wood or paper fibers remain. The fibers are pressed through heavy rollers that remove more water and then sent through steam-heated dryers. The result is recycled paper.
Plastic is made of petroleum.
It can be recycled either as a mixture of different kinds of plastic or as a single type. Separating plastic by type enables manufacturers to produce higher quality recycled products, or those closer to what could be produced from virgin materials. In the recycling process, plastics are melted down and reshaped into the recycled products. Some of the common uses for recycled PET are fiber, structural molding, and containers. HDPE can be recycled into bottles, toys, pipes, crates, and a variety of other products.