Comments on: The Ultimate Plastic Breakdown

By: Jackie Y.

Jackie Y. — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:06:07 +0000

Thanks for this article. As a Girl Scout leader of two troops, we are working on our Journey books. They are talking about water and energy. Is there a way to get the article without all the other stuff for my girls to see.

By: Cynthia James

Cynthia James — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:24:05 +0000

I was reading through these comments and the first spoke of the plastic bottles with lids left on. Why not seperate the bottles with lids into seperate bins and send to US prisons, make this a job for convicts. they could unscrew the lids for plastic bottles and put each into seperate bins then the goverment, who sees fit to give them jobs to make money anyways could add this to the job list. Then send the plastic and lid filled boxes could be sent to be properly recycled.
Our landfills are very sad and all of us should do our part. I also think that if the Goverment would give a little more incentive to recycle, people would be more inclined to do so. A small tax credit (that is if we could find a way to weigh and give vouchers for records. Say for instance walmart could add an employee to do just that, or we could take them into participating store (which should include all stores) and have a station set up only to weigh bags. I have many more thoughts but I’ll stop here for now. I just want my children to have the same chance to live in a clean would as some of the rest rest of us. Oh I also think it should be mandatory for fast food restaurants to use bio-degradable containers such as the corm made container. There is hope if we all try a little harder.

By: Ivan Stafford

Ivan Stafford — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:23:12 +0000

In searching recycle centers in numerous cities around the south and east, I find that most recyclers only recycle #1 and #2 plastics. Even some (maybe even most) large cities only recycle #1 & #2, including Philadelphia, Richmond, Cincinncat, NEW YORK, Huntsville,

I notice that some many food product packagers use #5 plastic where some use #2 for the same products. #2 is recyclable everywhere, and #5 almost nowhere. I makes no sense to me to use non-recyclable materials when recyclable materials CAN used, for example, for yogurt, cottage cheese, whipped cream.

You may argue that #5 IS recyclable. But it is not nearly as acceptable for recycling as #2, and #2 can be used almost anywhere that $5 can. Sure it has a higher temperature resistance, but who needs that for yogurt, cottage cheese, and whipped cream, which are stored in fridges?

Can (will) the plastics industry do something here to encourage the use of more #2 and less #5?

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:51:13 +0000

To my happiness, I found a bin at my local Whole Foods to recyle # 5 plastics. I originally found a article on recyling pill bottles at the store about 4 months ago online when researching recycling the bottles.I tried asking local pet clinics if they could use them but no dice. When I typed in pill bottle here in the search,nothing came up either. So anyways,I called Whole Foods to double check and they said I can bring in any of my #5 plastics in. There going to be getting alot from my house,lol.I can’t stand throwing it away but my local recycling will not take it.

Here is info about there program and some others:
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:ffp_j63Tj-8J:blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/01/gimme-5-recycling/+whole+foods+recycle+5&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

If you can take this extra step,go for it!!!
Erin from Long Island,NY

By: Three Recycled Posts from the Top 20 of 2009 | Recycling Everywhere

Three Recycled Posts from the Top 20 of 2009 | Recycling Everywhere — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:35:19 +0000

[...] Earth911 selected their top 20 green headlines of 2009 and three of them were particularly relevant for recycling. The Ultimate Plastic Breakdown [...]

By: Is There a Better Plastic? » Earth Living Hope

Is There a Better Plastic? » Earth Living Hope — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:30:45 +0000

[...] There a Better Plastic? Posted December 10, 2009 By Freddi Bear Recycling plastics 1-6 is usually pretty straightforward, as each category correlates with a specific [...]

By: Types of Plastic « Discover

Types of Plastic « Discover — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:03:50 +0000

[...] http://earth911.com/blog/2009/11/23/the-ultimate-plastic-breakdown/ [...]

By: Amanda Wills

Amanda Wills — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:12:43 +0000

Hi Chartley,

Sounds like your school is doing some pretty cool stuff! Recycling polystyrene is a hot topic around here, and there are a lot of programs that have been put in place to remedy the lack of curbside programs. Check out our article on recycling plastic #6 (http://earth911.com/blog/2009/08/31/360-recycling-plastic-6/). I think this will help you get started. I suggest contacting some of the companies we profile in the article. Also, in July, we ran a story about a California elementary school that piloted its own recycling program for foam trays (http://earth911.com/blog/2009/07/31/elementary-students-pioneer-syrofoam-recycling-program/). Hope this helps. Good luck and keep up the efforts!

By: chartley

chartley — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:02:35 +0000

I am a teacher in an Arts Academy in Clovis NM. My class is working on going green and trying to help our school. We have built our vermicomposting area and are feeding our worms left over cafeteria food. But our question is, how can we recycle all of the styrofoam trays that our cafeteria food is served on each day. We have 521 students that eat everyday and watch the custodians throw all of that into the dumpster. It is very sad. We have found a recycling area for other plastics and are saving our bottle tops for a mosaic mural. The big deal for us now is the cafeteria trays. Can you help us?

By: RE3.org

RE3.org — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:41:19 +0000

In your first section about number 1 plastics you mention that NC is one of 11 states to have a bottle bill. That is not correct. We have a landfill disposal ban on all plastic bottles, but there is not a deposit associated with it. More information can be found here – http://www.p2pays.org/BannedMaterials/PlasticBottles/.

In response to the first comment about the lids found on plastic bottles once they arrive at a MRF, we recommend that citizens squish their bottle and screw the cap back on. Thus decreasing the amount of volume and negating any projectiles that might occur when processed or baled. Some MRFs do have markets for the lids. I always tell people, we don’t ask you to remove the ring, which is the same type of plastic. Once a processor has enough of something, it will become valuable for them to recycle versus throwing it away.