The Plastics

By Margaret Scott

In this day and age, plastic gets a bad rap. Truthfully, this is a deserving one. Plastic, unlike other recycled materials such as glass or newspaper, is challenging, costly, and too frequently impossible to recycle. Rather, plastics may be discarded into a landfill or recycled further into non-renewable resources such as tile flooring, prolonging the often inevitable journey to the landfill. As if that weren’t enough to worry about, plastics are also problematic because of the potentially harmful effects they may have on the food products they so frequently hold for us. Here, I’ll try to break down (pun intended) the essentials of plastics – first, their recycling characteristics and second, next week, the types we need to worry about.

Recycling

You may have noticed the little numbers at the base of your plastic bottles or containers. This is the “resin identification number,” indicating the category of plastics that the product belongs to. The numbers run 1 through 7, each with a different classification. Of all numbers, 1(PETE) and 2(HDPE) are both the safest as well as easiest to recycle into other recyclable items, such as fleece, carpet, or other bottles. Therefore, when considering your plastic options, 1 and 2 deserve further consideration. They are the most widely accepted by community recycling programs and are relatively safer and have a greatly reduced environmental impact.

Plastic bags, despite their ubiquity, stand out in the realm of plastics for the ease with which they can be recycled. Although they are often discarded, the relative chemical simplicity of plastic bags allows for a shortened recycling process. Plastic Bag Recycling, a website with a clearly stated mission encourages the recycling of plastics bags including:
▪ grocery bags
▪ retail bags (hard plastic and string handles removed)
▪ paper towel and toilet paper plastic wrap
▪ plastic newspaper bags
▪ plastic drycleaning bags
▪ clean, clear bags labeled with a 2 or 4

According to the literature on the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council website (http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/index.asp), plastics have the potential to be a renewable, environmentally-friendly resource. In reality, however, the production technology has yet to catch up with the consumer demand for efficient, fresh packaging. Therefore, we need to make better choices – first about amount of plastic we truly need to consume in the first place, and second about the types of plastic we choose to consume when we truly do need it.

For more information:

▪ The Ecology Center (http://www.ecologycenter.org/ptf/misconceptions.html) makes five suggestions as to how to address problematic plastic consumption, including a reduction of use and a newly developed labeling system.

▪ Plastic Bag Recycling (http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/01.0/) has a state by state database of retailers that accept plastic bags for recycling.

▪ The Daily Green (http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321) has a helpful article describing each of the ID numbers – their composition, potential harm, and what they may be recycled into.