Plastics
Every plastic has its place.
Plastic beverage containers come in all different colours, shapes, and sizes. In Alberta, they are sorted into clear PET, HDPE natural and colored plastics to maintain material quality when sent to recyclers.
What are plastic containers?
From water bottles to sports drinks, from yogurt drinks to juices and smoothies, plastic beverage containers are a part of our daily lives.
In Alberta, we’re committed to preventing these containers from ending end up in landfills or our environment. Understanding your plastic containers helps to ensure that they get a second life through recycling.
Common Beverage Containers
- PET Clear (like water and soft drink bottles)
- HDPE Natural (such as milk jugs)
- Coloured Plastics (soft drink and sports drink bottles, small water jugs, drinkable yogurt, etc.)
| PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Clear | HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) Natural | Other (Coloured) Plastics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common Beverage Containers |
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| What They Become |
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Did You Know?
- Clear PET is one of the few plastics that can be recycled back into food-grade containers, including new plastic water bottles.
- HDPE natural has different recycling capabilities than colored HDPE.
- Only a thousand recycled milk jugs can be transformed into a new park bench.
- Coloured plastics come in a multitude of different colours, shapes, and sizes. Together, they can have a second life as durable outdoor products that last decades.
The Plastics Journey:
- Collected at depots and sorted by type.
- Baled separately at ABCRC to maintain quality.
- Sent to recyclers, where the materials are cleaned and transformed into plastic pellets.
- Pellets are sold to many different manufacturers for use in products made from recycled plastics, including new beverage containers.
Click on a container type below for more information
