What is silicone? Silicone is a type of rubber or plastic that is soft and semi-flexible. It is also nonsticky, meaning it will not leave any residue on surfaces. Many people can not answer the question: is silicone recyclable and reusable? Silicone is a product that is used in many industries, such as the medical industry. It is also used in kitchenware products, like bakeware and frying pans, what’s more, it is also used in some sports jewelry, for example, silicone wristbands, silicone watches, etc. There are also some children’s products, such as children’s tableware, silicone feeding bottles, silicone anti-mosquito bracelets, etc. If you wonder if your old silicone is recyclable or could be reused for another project, read on to find out more about this material!
Table of Contents
What Is Silicone?
- Silicone is a synthetic material used to create various household and personal products, such as cookware, tableware, cosmetics containers.
- The silicone is made of silica (SiO) which can be found in the earth’s crust.
- It is nonreactive with other materials around it, so there are no worries about toxicity or leeching into food or water.
Is Silicone a Healthy Choice?
Yes, silicone is very safe and is even used in baby bottles. Silicone is a synthetic type of rubber that is made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is inert to most chemicals but can react with alkalis such as ammonia or sodium hydroxide.
There are many types of silicone, including soft silicone gel sheets that are used for medical purposes (such as skin grafts) and hard siliconized elastomers, which have high durability and strength, so they’re often found on the exterior surfaces of recreational equipment like kayaks, surfboards, boats, snow skis, etc.
Characteristics of silicone
Silicone is a long-lasting and durable material that can be used in many different ways. One thing that makes silicone so unique is how it withstands high temperatures without melting or burning due to its low heat conductivity. This property makes it perfect for cooking, cleaning, beauty products, and manufacturing other forms of silicon materials such as solar cells.
Silicone has an advantage over most plastics because it stretches when heated rather than becoming brittle like PVC (polyvinyl chloride) does at similar temperatures. It also doesn’t create dangerous fumes from combustion, which means less risk if there’s ever a fire accident or problem with flammable items being stored inside it. Silicone rubber contains no chlorine compounds making them more environmentally friendly too.
Is Silicone an ecologically sound Choice?
Silicone is a more eco-friendly choice for materials because it can be recycled or reused. Silicone has low melting points, making it easy to recycle. Even if something made out of silicone melts down and becomes unusable, it can easily be remelted and molded into something else. This makes recycling very cost-effective as well, with these properties that make this material so great!
Another thing worth noting about silicone is that production requires less energy than other plastics that are not recyclable, such as PVC plasticized by phthalates that release toxins when burned. In addition, the FDA does not regulate their use in food packaging like they do for other types of plasticizers like BPA found in polycarbonate water.
Disposable components in silicone
Silicone is typically composed of five main components: polydimethylsiloxane, cyclosiloxanes, methyl hydrogen siloxane, phenylmethyl siloxane, and silica. Of these materials, only the first one, polydimethylsiloxane or PDMS for short, is recyclable, while the other four are not. As a material, it’s too hard to recycle because its molecular structure includes cross-links, which makes recycling more expensive than producing new silicone from scratch. This means that if you use your silicone items long enough, they will eventually need to be replaced by new ones due to wear and tear (it becomes easier with time).
Is Silicone recyclable?
Silicone is not a material that can be recycled in the traditional sense. There are different types of silicone, and each one has to be handled differently for recycling purposes. As its name implies, Silicone will form into a solid mass when heated up, which makes melting down the substance difficult even with advanced equipment.
If you have an older appliance such as an ice cream maker from years ago that uses silicone rubber, then your best bet would be finding someone who recycles old kitchen products or calling around to find out what options might exist near you. This includes looking at online classified ads like Craigslist or Kijiji if you’re unsure about where to start.
Recycling silicone at home:
Recycling silicone at home is not possible. The material contains too many hazardous materials to make it safe for a household recycling bin, including lead and BPA. However, there are some ways you can reuse your old food-grade silicone:
Even though there are no recycling centers for silicone in Australia, you can still do it yourself at home. For example, you can recycle your silicone cookware. Would you please not throw it away? Three things happen when you try to recycle your silicone:
You save money, reuse products, and help the environment by recycling. Here is how to do it at home:
Prepare your recycling equipment
You can recycle the silicone at home. To do this, you will need safety equipment. You will need basic pieces of equipment to process the silicone. Fortunately, you do not need expensive tools to recycle silicon.
If you are doing this procedure, be careful. The silicone flakes can get in your water and make a mess. Put all of the things that you use in the recycling process under a cloth. This will stop the silicone from getting into your water when you wash it. Next, I will describe what you might need to do this procedure.
Pulverise silicone for recycling
Collect the equipment you need. Shred or grind down the silicone to pieces that are small and fine. You can use scissors, a knife, or a blade. If there is lots of silicone, do this with a grinder if you have one available at your house. Soft and hard silicone can both be recycled with this method.
Prepare a container to shape the recycled silicone.
After grinding down the silicone, make a mold out of it. You can make many things with recycled silicone. For example, if you’re making a cake decorating mold, you can shape the mold into how you want the cake to be. This all depends on what type of mold you want to use; many different molds will allow you to shape your silicone according to your wishes.
Mix the recycled silicone with virgin silicone
Now that you have the ground silicone and mold in your hands, mix them. Fresh, new silicone comes in either powder or liquid form. But before you mix the fresh new silicone with the old recycled one, it must be turned into a solid-state first.
First, you need to do something with the silicone. One way is to make it into more of a solid. You can go about this by treating it with things such as catalysis and vulcanizing (causing a chemical reaction that makes the substance much less malleable).
How to Reuse Silicone
While silicone is not easy to recycle, there are a few ways you can do it. You can repurpose old silicone at home, following a few steps. First, cut or grind the old silicone up and add new fresh silicon purchased in either powder or liquid form. Mixing it depends on the type of silicon you are trying to recycle. When done with this step, set your mold in for curing, and the recycled items will have some or all of the old silicon mixed in with them.
Silicone is a strong material and can be used for things like playground mulch. You could grate it up and then spread it out under the play equipment. Or you could cut it up into pieces to use as oven mitts or trivets that protect pots and pans on the countertop from being burned.
Silicone could be useful around a fireplace to keep sparks from hitting the floor or storing dirty items. Silicone is easy to clean and will not stain.
Final thoughts,
We hope that this article has helped you to understand better what silicone is and its qualities. If you’ve been wondering about whether or not it might be a healthier choice, an eco-friendly choice, or if there are ways to recycle the material at home, we have answered all of your questions in our blog post. Now let us know which method(s) for recycling silicone you want to try out!
