Category:Hard Plastic

Hard plastics are defined most readily as plastics which return to their shape when bent or flexed, and/or can't be scrunched into a ball^[1]. They are a meta category of plastics, meaning that it is less a definition related to a difference in their chemistry, and more a way to distinguish how the material will behave in a recycling process. Depending on the locale, this definition can be crucial in helping someone decide whether or not the plastic product they have can or can't be recycled via government recycling programs, such as Australia's ubiquitous kerbside recycling bins. Most hard plastic products found in domestic environments today can also be identified by their Resin identification code, and many jurisdictions may state that they accept all hard plastics via their recycling services, but may not have a solution in place for each particular polymer or resin. Sustainability Victoria for example states that they cannot recycle hard polystyrene.^[2]

META: a note on the categories listed below. The template for categories should include the division of these items, by their other shared categories. For example instead of a heading of 'Pages in category "Hard Plastic"', it should list 'Materials categorised as "Hard Plastic"', and 'Products categorised as containing "Hard Plastic"', with the relevant listings under each.