How should we recycle plastic? Plastic is recycled by first sorting it by the numbers printed on the bottom of most plastic products. There are many ways you can recycle plastic, but first you may want to...
There are many ways you can recycle plastic, but first you may want to learn about the different types of plastic that exist and what some of their categorizations mean.
Gerry Acuna, the president of Tri Recycling Inc., who has been involved in recycling for 12 years, explains that there is a numbering system used for plastics, which indicates the grade and type of the material.
Gerry Acuna, the president of Tri Recycling Inc., who has been involved in recycling for 12 years, explains that there is a numbering system used for plastics, which indicates the grade and type of the material.
"If you look at a plastic item, there is probably a number on the bottom of it: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 30."
What do the most frequently referenced numbers mean?
#1, commonly referred to as PETE is a polyester-type plastic that is used to make beverage and food containers.
#2, HDPE, is a high density plastic made from petroleum commonly used to create laundry detergent bottles and plastic bags.
#4 refers to LDPE, low-density polyethylene, which is a flexible plastic used to create pipes, tubes and toys.
#7 is the code for "other" plastics, which unfortunately means the material consists of mixed or layered plastics that are impossible to recycle.
"For the most part the easiest plastics to recycle are going to be plastics #1 and #2," says Acuna. "Those items are usually beverage-type containers and they are accepted in most programs as co-mingled. They go into the recycling stream and then are sorted at the nearest recycling facility."
Some states charge a deposit on plastic soda bottles, which can then be redeemed for cash when returned. Other areas accept beverage containers in common curbside bin recycling programs. Check with your local waste management organization to find out what they accept.
Perhaps the easiest plastic items to recycle are grocery shopping bags. These can be re-used as lunch sacks or used as trash bags for small garbage cans. In addition, most groceries provide recycling bins free of charge on-site to all of their customers, specifically for the disposal of these bags.
Other suggestions for recycling common household items include buying refills for soap dispensers rather than buying a new dispenser each time you run out, donating old plastic office supplies such as paper trays, tape dispensers and pencil holders to a local charity or school rather than disposing of them, and washing plastic food containers after its original product has been used, for future storage.
In relation to other materials, plastic unfortunately isn't the easiest thing put back into the ecosystem.
Acuna says, "Used plastics are a challenging commodity. [They] are very difficult because you have so many different grades of plastics."
It's not all bad news, however. The accessibility of plastic recycling programs is growing across the United States.
The American Plastics Council reports, "More than 20,000 communities, 63 percent of the nation's total, are estimated to have access to a community recycling program (curbside or drop-off) that collects plastics."
Because there is now a substantial market for creating plastic lumber products (such as lawn furniture), and household items such as buckets, a positive increase in plastic recycling may occur.
To learn more about their findings visit their website at http://www.plasticsresource.com.
