Recycling Surprises You Might Not Have Known

You stop by the convenience store and pick up a soft drink or bottled water. Having finished your beverage, you place the empty bottle in a container for it to be recycled. But what actually happens to the plastics we send off to be recycled?

Trying To Do The Right Thing
Many of us try to do our part to "Live Green" by sending plastic bottles to local recycling centers to be recycled and used again. Towns and cities hire companies to take in the recyclables. We assume they are simply ground/melted down and turned into plastic for use in containers and bottles. It is, however, more complex then you might have thought.

At the Recycling Facility
When your recyclable are picked up, they're taken to a center where they're separated into the general types of products (cardboard,glass plastic, etc). It's when the plastics are separated that the picture seems to differ from what we imagine.

The plastics are sorted based on the type of resin of which they are made . This is usually done by looking at the bottom of the item and looking for the chasing arrows recycling triangle stamped on and taking note of the number which it contains.

Those Odd Little Numbers In The Recycle Triangle
The triangle with the number stamped within it is to indicated the type of resin of which the plastic is made. The meaning of each number would easiest be explained by use of this handy table .

Do They Recycle All The Plastic Items Put By The Curb?
The folks at the recycling facility are there to make a profit. It is a business and a very lucrative one in this age and time. A large majority of the facilities are going to recycle plastic which will make them the most money with the least handling or storage. They want the heavier plastics because they themselves get paid by weight, not item type. Thus, most facilities do not recycle lightweight plastics since the company does not make as much money as the heavier plastics.

What Happens To The Plastic That Is Not Recycled?
Since very few recycling facilities recycle every type of plastic, then what happens to it? The facility loads any item they choose not to use (based on profitability) into tractor trailers and... takes it to the dump or incinerator where they are disposed of by placing them into the earth. It is estimated to take plastic a minimum of 1000 years to decompose in a landfill.

So Does My Recycling Efforts Make A Difference?
YES! Definitely! But perhaps we need to start looking more seriously at what we purchase that are in plastic containers. Most plastics come from the waste products of petroleum. We are now beginning to make great strides in the manufacturing and use of plastics whose key ingredient is poly lactic acid(PLA). This comes from corn, potatoes and sugar cane. Thus, farmers can now "grow" our plastics!

Recycling is an everyday task whose necessity has been brought on by ourselves. Our habits, as well as our apathetic attitude towards holding local, state, and national governments accountable in regard to recycling laws are to blame. So here is the question now posed to you:
Are you going to continue to be part of the problem or are you going to be part of the solution?

Sources:
www.ecologycenter.org
www.container-recycling.org
www.thegreenguide.com