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THE CONFUSION ABOUT PLASTIC RECYCLING
by JANE BOGNER
SUNDAY, September 21, 2003

Everywhere I go, I am asked about recycling plastics. This packaging material is highly used but so poorly regulated that very few consumers understand what can be recycled. One myth that surfaced recently was that the higher the number on the bottom of plastic containers meant that item had been through the recycling process that many times. That's not true. 

There are hundreds of modern plastics with only seven routinely labeled. The plastic industry cleverly put these plastic numbers inside a recycling triangle to make the public think that there are markets for recycling plastic.

The 2001 post-consumer plastic bottle recycling report noted that only 22 percent of PET bottles and 23 percent of HDPE bottles ended up in recycling bins. No other numbered plastic made enough of a recycling impact to be worth reporting.

Let's start with number 1 PET which stands for Polyethylene terephthalate. Soda bottles as well as some beer and liquor bottles are made from PET along with a variety of other food bottles. PET is recycled into fiber (57 percent), strapping (14 percent), food and beverage containers (11 percent), nonfood containers (7 percent), and film and sheet applications (6 percent).

Milk and water jugs are made from number 2 HDPE or high-density polyethylene. Clear and colored HDPE containers are recycled into new products including new bottles (40 percent), pipe (22 percent), lawn and garden applications (19 percent), film and sheet applications (7 percent) and lumber (6 percent).

Vinyl or polyvinyl chloride (number 3 V), polypropylene (number 5 PP) and number 7 OTHER could be recycled, but collecting it for recycling is cost-prohibitive because there are not enough items made from each material to warrant local factories to recycle it into new products. 

Low-density polyethylene (number 4 LDPE) is used to make grocery bags. LDPE is recycled into new bags or plastic lumber.

Then there's number 6 PS - Polystyrene, the plastic that I would ban from the face of the earth. Solid PS is made into compact disc jackets, eating utensils, and take-out food containers. The expanded PS know as Styrofoam is used for packing materials, coffee cups, meat trays, and egg cartons. The cost of moving used Styrofoam is higher than making it from virgin oil. It is not recycled.

My hiking friend and Mainer, Roger Lambert, sent me an interesting report about one solution to the problem of recycling Styrofoam. The city of Freeport, Maine passed an Anti-Styrofoam ordinance in 1989. The ban was suggested by a group of 9- and 10-year-old children whose original target was McDonald's Styrofoam containers.

The ordinance prohibits businesses in Freeport from serving or selling prepared food or meat, eggs, baked goods or other food in polystyrene foam containers. In a town with Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, and Starbucks, there have been few, if any, violations over the years. 

Last spring, Shaw's Supermarkets started building a mega store in Freeport. Locals are waiting to see how Shaw's complies with the ordinance since most of the supermarket's meats are packaged on Styrofoam trays.

Another solution to the mountains of recycled plastic comes from Texas. A company in Marshall Texas is building new manufacturing lines to produce TieTek, a composite railroad tie. When fully operational, the North American Technologies Group hopes to reach a monthly production level of 30,000 recycled railroad ties. The company uses recycled post-consumer plastic and scrap tires for 90 percent of the tie's composition. TieTek composite railroad ties are an alternative to the old standard hardwood version.

Be a smart shopper and only buy products in PET or HDPE containers because there are recycling markets for them.

VALCORE Recycling Vice President Jane Bogner's "A Sorted Affair" is published every other week in the Times-Herald, Community Outlook Section. For recycling information call Genie Kaggerud, VALCORE Recycling manager at 645-8258 or visit www.VALCORErecycling.org.

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