A short history of the practice of plastics recycling as practiced in the United States and Europe for the past ten years indicates that much progress has been made in educating the public sector about the environmental damage done by indiscriminating disposal of plastic items. Recent legislation has made the collection of some discarded plastic items more efficient, and has provided economic incentives to recover and reuse waste plastics. The methods of collection separation, cleaning, and fabrication of plastic wastes into useful and saleable items are discussed. Also discussed will be examples of products made from recycled plastic.