Recycling plastics

[Rogar]

Our local PBS aired the documentary show, "Bag It" last night. It was not half bad and all about how bad plastics are. They said of the many grades of recyclable plastics, there are only 2 that have good value and these are separted out. Then the remainder ends up in the landfill or is sent to China to be futher sorted. A new one on me and a little disturbing! Anyone heard of such a thing?

The show was actually very well produced and fun to watch. I checked and it's not available online, but maybe will air again. The bottom line was, the only big solution is to use less of things and live simply, which you have to like!

[Kat]

I'll keep an eye out for that one! Our city only accepts two kinds of plastic for recycling--containers that have a 1 or a 2 on the bottom. I used to end up with a lot of containers that had a 5 on the bottom (from yougurt and such), but now I avoid buying products packaged in them if I can. I never knew why other types of plastic weren't accepted for recylcing, but maybe this is why--the others on't have a good value and they end up in the landfill anyway.

[Rosemary]

We have a local recycling center that takes most plastics, but what they take does vary from time to time based on the markets.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of plastic bound for recycling goes to China, because that's where most of the factories are that make things. I know that a lot of paper in the recycling chain is shipped to China.

I think there's a fairly strong market for #5, polypropylene, although our city won't accept it; some stores, such as Whole Foods, have recycling bins for it.

[bicyclist]

Our town recycles only plastics #1 and #2. That concerns me as many other plastics are used to package the products we use like salad containers or newspaper wrappers. The local Whole Foods does take #5 plastics but not necessarily others.Anyone have success finding other companies to take plastics or lobbying their town to expand the range of plastics which will be recycled?

[freein05]

We have rented an apartment in Munich for a month and they separate everything for recycling. Pure garbage goes into one container and you put plastic, metals, glass and paper in different containers. The city burns what can not be recycled and uses the energy for home heating, electricity. The smoke from the burning is filter four times.

[loosechickens]

I remember staying in a campground in the Netherlands and there was one small trash container for probably well over a hundred campsites, that was smaller than a 55 gallon barrel. Here in the states, a campground that size would have multiple big dumpsters.

I was amazed, until I looked behind a nearby lattice screen and discovered the place for recycling, where you put all plastic, paper, glass, metals, organic garbage EXCEPT meat, etc., which neatly eliminated almost all the "trash", making it where a small trash can was more than adequate for the hundreds of people staying there.

[Miss Cellane]

My town will take any plastic with any number in the triangle for recycling. I live in a three family house, with a total of 5 occupants. We put out, collectively, one trash barrel every week. Recycling is picked up every other week, and we fill our three little blue recycling bins, plus a trash barrel that's been converted to recycling use. It isn't perfect, but it's a start. Our landlord won't let us compost, or we'd be able to get a free compost bin from the town.

[mira]

Household recycling really varies by county in my country. In the area I currently live in, it's pretty atrocious. Cardboard, most plastics and envelopes cannot be recycled unless you take them to a sorting centre that is only accessible by car (a thing which we do not have!). Weirdly, only 30 miles away where my parents live, all of these things CAN be recycled. ????

Since it is run by the council and all of their actions and things have to be completely transparent, I would like to ask them for a kind of tour of the recycling process. Where does this stuff end up? Why isn't it all sorted before it's taken away? (we are required to dump everything into one bin!) Who sorts it?

[freein05]

I discovered today that the store we shop at in Munich takes back the plastic bottles bought there back. They have a machine you put the bottle in that verifies the bottle was bought at that store. You pay a fee on every plastic bottle purchased and get it back when you return the bottle to that store. You can also recycle your old flashlight and camera batteries right at the store.

We accumulate about a 1/4th of the trash here that we accumulate in the US. They do not use so much packaging on products.

[Rogar]

It's interesting to read how this is handled in different areas and especially in Europe. In my area, I can pay extra for curbside recycling, but instead use drop off recyclings bins. I don't mind separating my recyclables, but the bins are single stream and people put cardboard, glass, plastics, and things like old telephone books into common bins. I've assumed in good faith that these are separated and indeed recycled. I guess what got me in the PBS special was that inspite of efforts to get plastics into a recycling stream, some or much of them may end up in a landfill. I don't know how accurately this was portrayed. I suppose I can imagine some of the plastics being shipped to China, but it is pretty wild to think that after shipping costs there can still be some value in doing this.

[libby]

The recycling center in my rural community takes paper and cardboard only. They really need to get with the program!

[freein05]

Here in Germany you also pay the plastic bottle fee based on the type of plastic used in the bottle. The plastic that is easier to recycle has a lower fee on it. A good example of less packaging was also noticed yesterday when we went shopping. We bought plastic bags. The bags were bund in a circle no cardboard packaging around them like when we buy them in the states.

[RoseFI]

I'm now convinced there's only one solution to plastics -- refuse to accept them. I just saw a clip from a movie-in-the-making by photographic journalist/artist Chris Jordan, he is documenting the tens-of-thousands of baby albatrosses that are dying each breeding season, because their parents feed them from the Pacific plastic gyre. It's horrific: http://www.midwayjourney.com/. See my (any minute now) post in the challenges area about trying to eliminate as much plastic as possible in my life...

[ApatheticNoMore]

I've assumed in good faith that these are separated and indeed recycled. I guess what got me in the PBS special was that inspite of efforts to get plastics into a recycling stream, some or much of them may end up in a landfill. I don't know how accurately this was portrayed. I suppose I can imagine some of the plastics being shipped to China, but it is pretty wild to think that after shipping costs there can still be some value in doing this.

I've heard the same thing. It's not just about what plastic the city or whatever will take. Cities sometimes take plastics they don't even recycle. Why? They want to encourage recycling and so take everything and later filter it. This takes a certain mental burden off the person recycling and so yes maybe it really does do what it is intended to which is to get people to recycle. And yes recycled stuff is often shipped to China where they sort through them and determine what can actually be recycled (certainly not everything that has been shipped!)

As I've learned more about recycling I am actually throwing more away. That's doesn't sound good I admit. I no longer try to recycle "mystery plastic" (plastic without a number and symbol). It will probably get sorted out anyway, but I just trash it now. It's also not ok to recycle things that are let's say "contaminated with food or grease". Tin cans need to be washed to be recyclable otherwise they will not get recycled (washing tin cans isn't a big deal in most cases but not everyone knows this). I imagine glass is the same way. Cardboard can not have grease stains or other food on it or it can't be recycled. And actually it's worse than that, things like this that are greasy can also contaminate other recyclables, ruining other things for recycling and forcing them to go into the landfill. So yes that greasy piece of cardboard will actually cause more waste if you try to recycle it than if you just threw it away.

Oh recycling is still probably a very good thing as some percentage of recyclables actually do get recycled. And recycling works especially well for some materials. I'm not saying don't recycle (that would just mean that instead of maybe 50% of what we send to be recycled getting recycled, that instead nothing would be.) It's just not as good as we have been led to believe.


I'm now convinced there's only one solution to plastics -- refuse to accept them.

Yes that's the best idea.

[fidgiegirl]

Rogar, I once heard that it can be cost effective to do this because the huge container ships loaded with all the crap we buy from China come over to deliver it, but then have nothing to take back. So they can either go back with garbage or go back empty . . . pretty sad commentary on our state of affairs.

[Marianne]

We don't have trash service as we recycle practically everything. I agree, not bringing the plastic home is the best thing to do. I don't buy plastic, etc etc...but you know what takes up the most space in our recycling? Plastic!!!! Milk jugs and distilled water jugs (DH's CPAP machine requires distilled water).

We can buy milk from a localish company in 1/2 gallon glass bottles. The weight got to be an issue with me, so we went back to the gallon plastic bottles (something about that handle just makes it easier to pour, you know?) I make everything I can from scratch, but I'm kind of drawing a line against making distilled water and for sure! I am not getting a cow or a goat unless it's going to milk itself.

DS#1 told me that plastic can only be recycled so many times before it ends up being in the waste stream...discouraging.