Recycling Related Questions
Q: Can plastic straws be recycled?
A: Yes, they actually can be recycled. It is a common misconception that straws cannot be recycled. We at Merlin Plastics have proved this theory by recycling PP straws ourselves by adding them into our PP resin production.
Q: Can bags be recycled?
Yes, however, it depends on the type of bag. On a daily basis Merlin Plastics recycles a wide variety of plastic bags and turns them back into resin for reuse.
Q: Are plastic (PET) caps recyclable?
A: Yes! All you need to do is rinse the item and put the cap back onto the plastic bottle or item and it can safely be recycled with the other similar items.
Q. What does PET, PP, PE, HDPE, LDPE, PS, PVC, PETG mean?
A. PET = polyethylene terephthalate (#1), PP = Polypropylene (#5), PE = Polyethylene, HDPE = High Density Polyeythylene (#2), LDPE = Low Density Polyethelyne (#4), LLDPE = Linear Low Polyethylene (#4), PS = Polystyrene (#6), PVC = Poly-vinyl-chloride (#3), PETG = Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (#7).
Merlin Plastics Related Questions
Q: Where are you guys based?
A: We are based out of Delta, British Columbia, Canada. We have sister companies, and another couple Merlin Plastics facilities in Alberta, and in New Westminster, British Columbia. Everything we make is Canadian made.
Q: If plastics are “unrenewable” how are you recycling them, shouldn’t that be impossible? Google says: “”Unrenewable plastics,” or conventional plastics, are derived from non-renewable fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas, and coal and include common types like PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, and PS” How are you doing that?
A: We recycle post-consumer plastics and products by turning them back into plastic pellets or “resin” so they can conventially be remade into other household, or items. We strive to find ways make it so plastics aren’t “non-renewable” but instead are renewable. We are also achieving this by going a step further and making FDA-Grade-HDPE Natural Resin for consumers. Through our strenous cleaning process, quality control team, and logistics team, we make sure that our products become something new and actually get recycled.
Q: What plastics do you guys recycle?
A: We recycle PP, HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PET, MDPE, and Polyolefins (PE/PP)
Q: Do you guys specifically recycle Canadian products?
We recycle products from all over the world. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s what was agreed upon for delivery, recyclable and not hazardous material.
Q: Do you guys only recycle specific products?
A: It depends on what you mean by specific products. We at Merlin Plastics believe in not only recycling things like bales. Our goal is to be able to include everything from the same material type-line together to recycle a wide variety of products. No matter what the shape, type, FDA or non-FDA grade, color, size, we don’t discriminate on products. We don’t leave any recyclable product behind in the recycling process, we recycle everything and anything that has matches our products, like PP plastic straws, oil containers, soap bottles, regrind etc., we will take it all just to ensure it gets recycled properly, as long as it’s recyclable and it meets our guidelines we will recycle it, it is our job. We try to recycle as much of a variety of products as we can.
Environment Related Questions
Q: How are plastics ending up in the ocean? Is it the plastics manufacturers fault or the consumer?
A: It is the consumer who causes plastics to end up in the ocean, as littering often occurs after the consumption of a particular food-grade product. Plastics Recycling companies have a duty to ensure that these plastics either stay at the facility, or get recycled properly without causing harm to the surrounding environment.
Q: Are you guys environment friendly?
A: We are. Please see our President/CEO’s quote in the “meet our president” tab about his beliefs and goals. While you are there please view our mission as we outline our goals. To add to this question; we do our best to use environment friendly means of production via steam, and electricity, rather than via gas, diesel and oil. We also make sure that our products do not end up in drains, on the roads, or anywhere they shouldn’t be, we adhere to strict environment friendly guidelines laid out to us by the Federal and Provincial Government of Canada. We are also one of the companies that recycled material that others would not, we provide a special guarantee that our products get recycled not only safely but responsibly as well. We also use specialized environment friendly equipment to process our material.
Q: How does recycling help the environment exactly?
A: As a consumer, if you recycle you are ensuring that something like a plastic or biproduct gets turned back into either a renewable energy, new version of itself (like what we do at Merlin Plastics) or gets repurposed into something else. If you don’t recycle, these items end up in the landfill and then eventually end up into the oceans, forests, lawns etc. As a consumer, it is your teamwork that helps prevent plastics from ending up in our environment. Once it is recycled it is taken to a sorting facility like ENCORP/Return-It and it is then taken to other facilities where those plastics get distributed and reprocessed, where those reprocessed materials then get turned into something new. For more information on examples of what happens to our products please see our page HERE You can also visit https://recyclebc.ca/ and/or https://www.albertarecycling.ca/ for information on BC recycling and learn how to make a difference!
Q: What are you guys doing in order to help the environment?
A: To answer this question, we are doing everything we can to ensure that plastics, metals, bi-products, etc., that come to our facilities get properly recycled. We mainly sort, recycle and reprocess plastic. Everything else we ensure goes to other resource recyclers to ensure that these items get properly recycled. On top of that, we only work with partners who actually recycle the products we give them. For more information, please see our environmental contributions page HERE
Q: How can you guys guarantee that you’re preventing plastics pollution?
A: We can personally guarantee this because of the practices and procedures that we have in place. Like other companies around us, we at Merlin Plastics are doing our due diligence and ensuring that everything we receive gets properly recycled; if it didn’t, we would be out of business. It is our job and our sole responsibility to ensure that plastics don’t end up somewhere where they shouldn’t be. We have established partnerships, won awards, and contributed to a global action to help save the environment. Please see this video (by CBC News) for proof of how we are one of the companies out there that recycles the plastics we receive:
Job Related Related Questions
Q: Who can I contact for a job?
A: Please see our contact page or our job opportunities page where you will see a form at the bottom where you can fill out a job application request form. You can also contact [email protected]
Q: What jobs are available?
A: Please view our careers page for this answer HERE
For any other information or questions that you don’t see here please fill out the form below.
Have A Question? Contact Our Team!
Or you can email [email protected] directly!