Plastics are made from oil, a fossil fuel that will one day run out. It is important to make use of materials like plastics that can be recycled and re-used, rather than continually exploiting the fossil fuels used to make them in the first place. The majority of the plastics waste we generate is plastic bottles that can easily be recycled. Other plastics, such as plastic trays and films, can also be recycled but the technology to make it affordable is still being developed. In Britain we throw away about 455,000 tonnes of plastic bottles every year – that’s around 9.1 billion bottles! Many of these end up in landfills where, because plastic bottles are very light but very bulky, they take up lots of space. Plastic bottle recycling helps to stop all these bottles being dumped into landfill sites and means the plastic they are made from can be used to make new products. All sorts of amazing products can be made from recycled plastic bottles, including fleece jackets. It takes about 25 2 litre pop bottles to make one adult size fleece jacket. Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W lightbulb for 6hrs! All household bottles, with only a few exceptions, can be collected for recycling, so click here to find your nearest recycling point and get recycling!