Cleaning is an important step in the process of recycling plastic bottles. Plastic bottle manufacturers generally use caustic soda for cleaning. The raw materials for plastic recycling come from various plastic packaging materials in waste disposal. There are not only medical waste, but also dangerous goods containers such as pesticides, engine oil, and chemical raw materials. The production wastewater contains a large amount of bacteria and toxic and harmful substances such as mercury, cadmium, aluminum, cyanide, and benzene, seriously polluting the water environment. Implement joint law enforcement, strengthen cooperation among departments and units such as the Development, Reform and Economic and Trade Commission, public security, industry and commerce, land, environmental protection, and electricity, and follow the standards of "revoking business licenses, cutting off water and power, and dismantling major production equipment" to discover and close one location; Strengthen publicity and educate property owners to consciously stop processing business through forms such as television broadcasting, posting notices, and distributing flyers. But even with such linkage, the waste plastic processing workshops are still difficult to disappear.

Some processing households, due to weak environmental awareness, directly discharge the generated sewage into rivers and ditches near villages or directly lead it to farmland outside the factory, resulting in groundwater pollution, reduced crop yields, and tree withering. Villagers crush and granulate waste plastic into plastic products, which have outdated technology and equipment, no environmental treatment facilities, and are processed outside their own yards. Due to the need for heating and processing, the factory area is filled with thick smoke and pungent odors, resulting in serious pollution of the surrounding environment with wastewater and foul odors.

The processing of "small plastics" often involves households investing tens of thousands of yuan in equipment to sort, clean, crush, melt, and granulate waste plastic bags, barrels, plastic bottles, and other materials. With low investment, quick results, simple equipment, easy operation, and low site requirements, an ordinary machine can process 1.5 tons of plastic per day, and each machine is equipped with 5 laborers, which can have considerable benefits. Such small workshops are widely present in rural areas.