If You have learned about the Plastic Continent -- the floating island of vinyl twice the size of Texas from the Pacific Ocean -- then you understand how crucial it is to recycle plastic. Right now, only 5% of plastics worldwide are recycled. Some of this is ignorance: most of the world still only doesn't understand the threat plastics pose to our environment and our food chain.
But plastics themselves are complicated. Even if you want to recycle your plastics, and even if you dutifully separate plastics from the rest of your household waste and put it out on the curb in its green or blue recycle bin, your plastics may still end up in the Plastic Continent. Why is this?
Different Kinds of Plastic
Look At the underneath side of a plastic jar or plastic container. Within the familiar reduce, reuse, recycle triangle ("chasing arrows") logo is a number between one and seven. This number indicates what sort of plastic that container is made from. Some plastics are easy to recycle, but other plastics are a lot harder to recycle. Because of this, most municipal recycling facilities only recycle the easiest plastics: plastics 1 and 2. What happens to plastics 3 through 7? At some recycling facilities, these are gathered until they have enough to send to a bigger recycling facility which does recycle these kinds of plastics. But at other recycling facilities, the same thing happens to plastics 3 through 7 as what might have happened at your home if you did not have that handy recycling bin: it goes to the landfill, or the Pacific's Plastic Continent.
Plastics #1 and #2
Plastic #1 is polyethelyne terephthalate (PET). This is the most widely used plastic, and it is the easiest to recycle. Your plastic soda bottle, salad dressing bottle, and cooking oil jar are probably all made from PET. More than 2.3 billion pounds of PET are recycled annually.
Plastic #2 is high density polyethelene (HDPE). Most milk jugs, detergent bottles, and several food containers are made from HDPE. Unfortunately, some plastics marked with a #2, such as yogurt cups, are not actually recyclable. This is because other chemicals are added to the plastic in order to mold it to the desired shape. These additives make recycling some of these #2 things basically impossible.
Plastics #1 and #2 make up 96 percent of all the plastic bottles produced in the USA. Nevertheless, 80% of plastic bottles still wind up in a landfill, even though 80% of Americans have access to a method for recycling these bottles.
Plastic #3 through #7
The Rest of the plastics make up pretty much everything that is not a plastic jar. Just think of all the plastics on your home -- your toothbrush, cling wrap, plastic bowls, plastic cups, drinking straws, last night's leftovers, that almost-impossible-to-open pack your new iPhone came in, your computer, your DVD cases... plastic is everywhere.
These Plastics can be categorized as the plastics #3 through #7. None of them are particularly easy to recycle, so even though your recycling man will take it out of your suppress, that does not necessarily mean it will become tomorrow's soda bottle. However, by researching recycling centers in your area, you can find places to recycle these common plastics.
The Bottom Line When it Comes to Plastic Recycling
Plastic Is far more difficult to recycle than other materials. Since it breaks down during the recycling process, it may only be recycled so many times -- this is why many recyclers prefer so-called"virgin plastics", or plastics which have not been recycled before because they create a better product. That means that even in the event that you do the best you can to recycle all your plastics, a number of them might still wind up in the dump.
The Clear conclusion we must draw is that even the most conscientious recycling isn't enough when it comes to plastics: finally, we have to reduce our consumption. The practice of producing plastics, many plastics , and the wake of plastic usage can be described as toxic. Nearly all manufacturing processes for the various types of plastic listed above involve some degree of toxicity, and as these plastics disintegrate in landfills or in the sea, these poisonous chemicals find their ways into our lands, our water, our food, and our bodies.
So please recycle plastic. But better yet, stop buying plastic wherever possible.
But plastics themselves are complicated. Even if you want to recycle your plastics, and even if you dutifully separate plastics from the rest of your household waste and put it out on the curb in its green or blue recycle bin, your plastics may still end up in the Plastic Continent. Why is this?
Different Kinds of Plastic
Look At the underneath side of a plastic jar or plastic container. Within the familiar reduce, reuse, recycle triangle ("chasing arrows") logo is a number between one and seven. This number indicates what sort of plastic that container is made from. Some plastics are easy to recycle, but other plastics are a lot harder to recycle. Because of this, most municipal recycling facilities only recycle the easiest plastics: plastics 1 and 2. What happens to plastics 3 through 7? At some recycling facilities, these are gathered until they have enough to send to a bigger recycling facility which does recycle these kinds of plastics. But at other recycling facilities, the same thing happens to plastics 3 through 7 as what might have happened at your home if you did not have that handy recycling bin: it goes to the landfill, or the Pacific's Plastic Continent.
Plastics #1 and #2
Plastic #1 is polyethelyne terephthalate (PET). This is the most widely used plastic, and it is the easiest to recycle. Your plastic soda bottle, salad dressing bottle, and cooking oil jar are probably all made from PET. More than 2.3 billion pounds of PET are recycled annually.
Plastic #2 is high density polyethelene (HDPE). Most milk jugs, detergent bottles, and several food containers are made from HDPE. Unfortunately, some plastics marked with a #2, such as yogurt cups, are not actually recyclable. This is because other chemicals are added to the plastic in order to mold it to the desired shape. These additives make recycling some of these #2 things basically impossible.
Plastics #1 and #2 make up 96 percent of all the plastic bottles produced in the USA. Nevertheless, 80% of plastic bottles still wind up in a landfill, even though 80% of Americans have access to a method for recycling these bottles.
Plastic #3 through #7
The Rest of the plastics make up pretty much everything that is not a plastic jar. Just think of all the plastics on your home -- your toothbrush, cling wrap, plastic bowls, plastic cups, drinking straws, last night's leftovers, that almost-impossible-to-open pack your new iPhone came in, your computer, your DVD cases... plastic is everywhere.
These Plastics can be categorized as the plastics #3 through #7. None of them are particularly easy to recycle, so even though your recycling man will take it out of your suppress, that does not necessarily mean it will become tomorrow's soda bottle. However, by researching recycling centers in your area, you can find places to recycle these common plastics.
The Bottom Line When it Comes to Plastic Recycling
Plastic Is far more difficult to recycle than other materials. Since it breaks down during the recycling process, it may only be recycled so many times -- this is why many recyclers prefer so-called"virgin plastics", or plastics which have not been recycled before because they create a better product. That means that even in the event that you do the best you can to recycle all your plastics, a number of them might still wind up in the dump.
The Clear conclusion we must draw is that even the most conscientious recycling isn't enough when it comes to plastics: finally, we have to reduce our consumption. The practice of producing plastics, many plastics , and the wake of plastic usage can be described as toxic. Nearly all manufacturing processes for the various types of plastic listed above involve some degree of toxicity, and as these plastics disintegrate in landfills or in the sea, these poisonous chemicals find their ways into our lands, our water, our food, and our bodies.
So please recycle plastic. But better yet, stop buying plastic wherever possible.
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