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MORE PLASTIC NEWS 
by JANE BOGNER
SUNDAY, April 18, 2004

It seems as though I am always writing about plastic. We have so much of the stuff around us: old grocery bags, empty containers, take-out boxes, the molded boxes that contain our computers, printers, radios. It is a mountain of material that needs a good environmental solution.

Hidden in the middle of last weeks’ newspaper was a little article about a fire at the Republic Services Landfill in Livermore. The burning area of the landfill was up to 50 feet deep and contained ground up plastic, fiberglass, foam, carpet and other materials. Officials expected that it would take several days to get to the core of the fire to extinguish it.

A little farther south in the central valley town of Hanford, Plastic Energy plans to start converting used plastics into fuel. The process is called reverse refining which melts the plastic instead of burning it. A catalyst breaks down the plastic into a gas, cools it into distilled liquid petroleum, then distills it further into a an ultra-low-sulpher diesel fuel and a low-octane gasoline.

Did you figure out where I was going with this? Plastic is typically made from petroleum or natural gas and is another drain on our dwindling oil supply. The good news is, I discovered an expanded local recycling opportunity. Major grocery stores have recycling bins for bags. Most stores only accept the plastic bags that they give to their customers.

Safeway’s plastic bag recycling barrel listed a bunch of different bags that they will accept. Here they are: store carry-out bags, fresh produce bags, newspaper delivery bags, plastic dry cleaning bags, light colored bags or film with resin code 2 or 4 [I assume that is #2 HDPE and #3 LDPE plastic]. Please make sure bags are clean, dry and empty. Safeway does not want the following: frozen food pouches, black trash bags or bags that contained soaps, chemicals, oils, or pesticides.

VALCORE’s Operations Supervisor, Larry Sargalis, called me the other night to share his good spring cleaning fortune. He emptied his shelves of unwanted DVDs, videos, and CDs, and took a trip to Rasputins Music (920 Admiral Callaghan Lane). They buy back and sell unwanted music and movies if they are in good condition and in their original packages. Final in Vinyl, located downtown at Vallejo’s Antiques (445 Georgia) has a collection of over 2 million vinyl records. They sell these vintage records and may be interested in your old records.

APRIL 24 - EARTH DAY 

Just a reminder of two Vallejo events: Celebrate Earth Day at Vallejo Farmers’ Market on the 200 block of Georgia from 9 to 1 pm or attend our second annual E-Waste Recycling Event at Vallejo Garbage Service (2021 Broadway) from 8 am to 4 pm.

The free E-Waste event is open to Vallejo residents and businesses. Electronic items accepted include TVs, computer monitors and parts, laptops, radios, VCRs, small electronic appliances/equipment, cellular phones, cameras, and microwaves. They will not accept refrigerators, washers/dryers, air conditioners, freezers, stoves or ovens. 

This year, there will be an exchange table for unwanted, reusable electronic items. For more information, call 648-5346 or 552-3110.

SOLANO COUNTY RECYCLING INFORMATION

Our new web site, www.recycle-guide.com, is up and running with information about residential recycling in each city in Solano County. The commercial recycling side should be up in the fall.

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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