You just polished off some yogurt and, because of that
chasing-arrows symbol on the bottom of the container, you assume it should go in the recycle bin. Right?
Not necessarily.
Glass,
metal, and paper are pretty straightforward, but when it comes to
plastic, things get tricky. The truth is that what you can recycle
depends on where you live and what materials your city’s facilities can
handle. There are many different types of plastic, and they cannot all
be recycled together. So unless you’re diligent about sorting all your
plastics, then “recycling” that yogurt container may be doing more harm
than simply throwing it away.
Recycling is generally far better
than sending waste to landfills and relying on new raw materials to
drive the consumer economy. It takes
two-thirds less energy
to make products from recycled plastic than from virgin plastic. By the
last official measure in 2005, Americans recycle an estimated
32 percent of their total waste,
which averages nearly a ton per person per year, around a third of
which is plastic. Our recycling efforts save the greenhouse gas
equivalent of removing
39.6 million cars from the road.
But not all plastic can be recycled, and only about
6.8 percent
of the total plastic used in the U.S. actually goes that route—although
the rate is higher with bottles: 37 percent for soft drink and 28
percent for milk and water bottles.
The chief problem lies in
plastic’s complexity: There are as many types of plastic as there are
uses. And since each type can only be recycled with its own kind,
plastics need to be carefully sorted before they can be processed. The
presence of enough foreign materials—from food to dissimilar kinds of
plastic—can ruin an entire batch of would-be recyclables.
Plastics
are chemically categorized by numbers, which are displayed inside the
chasing-arrow icon on many plastic containers. The two most common types
are plastic #1 (polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE), which is used
mainly in soda and water bottles, and #2 (high-density polyethylene, or
HDPE), used in things like detergent bottles and milk jugs.
Unfortunately, while plastics marked #1 or #2 are generally considered
to be recyclable, not all containers with those numbers actually are.
The
reason for this is that many plastics contain additives blended into
the original resin, and the different additives create discrepancies
even within each category. Every container in the grocery store is made
with a unique blend of chemicals—plasticizers, molding agents, dyes—that
combine to give a plastic its shape, color, strength, and flexibility
(or lack thereof). As a result, they melt at varying temperatures and
respond differently to new additives, and so they cannot all be melted
down and recycled together to make a new product.
As a result,
most plastic, aside from the ubiquitous clear plastic bottle, cannot,
generally speaking, be recycled by most municipalities. This problem
applies to the #1s and #2s, as well as yogurt containers or hummus tubs,
and Chinese-takeout containers, which are usually made from #5 plastic.
(It also includes plastic bags and the frustratingly hard plastic
packaging that your headphones came in, which don't even earn a
recycling number.) But many people don’t know that, so they toss all of
them in the blue bin, thereby reducing efficiency at the sorting plant,
which is where your plastic goes when it's collected on recycling day.
Sorting
is a crucial part of the recycling process. Plastic sorting can be done
manually, but it’s tedious and labor-intensive. Automatic sorting is
far more efficient, but the technology is not foolproof: There are so
many types of plastics that sorting equipment can’t look for all
possible additives in the materials passing through. (Ironically, the
increasing use of bio-plastics—which are made from renewable materials
like cornstarch and are meant to be more earth-friendly than
conventional oil-based plastic—has made the job of automatic sorting
machines even harder.)
Any contamination in the recycle bin
compromises the strength and durability of the recycled plastic that is
produced, which in turn compromises its future use as a material for
manufacturers. A recycled container needs to be strong enough to hold
the weight of the contents inside, and many container shapes already
contain weak spots where the plastic has a reduced thickness—near a
bottle's handle, for example.
While all these complications make
it difficult to produce containers with a high percentage of recycled
plastic, some companies are still taking on the challenge. Seventh
Generation, a company that makes eco-friendly household products, is
increasing the recycled content of all its packaging, with a goal of 75
percent for all products by the end of the year.
But Seventh
Generation is an exception to a widespread industry trend. It is
virtually impossible to calculate the industry average for how much
recycled plastic goes into packaging, according to Tom Outerbridge,
director of municipal recycling for Sims Metal Management, a metals and
electronics recycling company. Without a built-in environmental ethic
like the one Seventh Generation has, individual companies are
inconsistent in their use of recycled content, and can use anywhere from
zero to 100 percent recycled plastic in their products. But when the
quality of the recycled plastic goes down, so does that percentage.
So
if you’re wondering if you should continue to recycle your plastics,
here’s an answer: Yes. But before you do, educate yourself on which
plastics your city collects, and bring other types to outlets where they
can be properly sorted. If you’re unsure about a plastic—an old CD
jewel boxes, perhaps, or Saran Wrap—then putting it in the bin and
hoping it will be recycled anyway does nothing for the environment. It’s
going to be thrown into the garbage after an elaborate and costly
sorting process, so you might as well just toss it out yourself.
