How It's Made

This series of videos explores the different processes of production of packaging and is interesting as the production process for certain plastic products turned out to be completely unexpected. Different processes like injection and blow moulding are used to create plastic bottles, etc… which are used as containers for many different types of products. What is interesting is that there is more then one process used in the production of a single product. For example, with the production of a juice bottle, the granulated plastic combined with less then 10% of recycled granulated plastic is first melted down and then moulded into a small cylindrical shape using injection moulding. The mould dries instantly and is then moved to a second machine which uses blow moulding to expand the cylindrical shape into a bottle nearly 5 times it size, the machine which is shown also churns out a massive 10600 bottles an hour, which shows just how far we have come in the production process.

What is interesting to learn about glass and other manufacturing processes is that everything needs to be timed perfectly. For example, in glass manufacturing, just like plastic, they use melted down glass and blow moulding to form the glass bottles. However, there is a lot of things to do in between a moulded and finished product. What I didn't realise is that like a design process, each individual product is constantly evaluated. Throughout the assembly line, cameras are used to check each individual bottle for cracks and/or bubbles while machines are used to check the size and strength. Fire is also used to warm the glass along the assembly line, due to the fact that if the bottles are cooled to quickly they might crack. Another thing which I have realised is that once these plastic, glass and aluminium bottles are made, they still need to be shipped to certain places in order to be filled. This means that so much energy is being wasted shipping empty glass bottles around to different manufacturers and most likely the reason why we now have wine tetra-pak containers which are able to be delivered in flat packed rolls. I think tetra-pak's are  great idea because they are easy to make and transport, however, if we are thinking of the full life cycle of a product, it would be much harder to recycle a tetra-pak than a glass bottle as it is made up from a combination of different materials and layers.

Most companies when manufacturing new products recycle any scraps that the may have, which is a good thing and are also looking for new ways to reduce the amount of energy a product takes to me manufactured as well as it's impact on the environment. What else i learnt from these video's is that garbage can still be useful even when it's been sent to landfill. The methane gas that is produced from all the rotting garbage underground can be harnessed and used to create energy. With new and emerging technologies, this methane can also be used to create natural gas which in turn could be used to power the very trucks which cart the garbage to and from your house, to the recycling factory and finally to it's final resting place underground.