Recycling Plastic Facts You Need to Know

You've probably heard of the Plastic Continent, a floating island of plastic twice as big as Texas that lies in the Pacific Ocean. It is a reminder of how important it is to recycle plastic. Only 5% of all plastics are currently recycled worldwide. This is partly due to ignorance: Most people don't know the dangers plastics pose for our environment and food chain. Plastics are complex. Plastics can end up in the Plastic Continent, even if they are recycled.

Different Types of Plastic

Take a look at the underside of any plastic container or bottle. A number between 1 and 7 is located inside the "chasing arrows" logo. This number tells you what type of plastic the container is made from. Some plastics can be recycled easily, while others are more difficult to recycle. Most municipal recycling facilities will only accept plastics 1 and 2. What happens to plastics 3-7? These plastics are collected at some recycling facilities until enough is available to be sent to larger facilities that recycle these types. Plastics 3-7 go to other recycling facilities. This is the same as what would happen at your home if you didn’t have a handy recycling bin. It goes to the landfill or the Pacific’s Plastic Continent.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is the most common plastic. This plastic is the most widely used and easiest to recycle. PET is the most common plastic used in plastic bottles such as soda, dressing, and cooking oils. Annually, more than 2.3 billion pounds worth of PET is recycled.

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is plastic. HDPE is used in many products such as milk jugs and detergent bottles. Some plastics with a #2 mark, like yogurt cups, cannot be recycled. To mold the plastic into the desired shape, other chemicals were added to it. Some of these additives make it virtually impossible to recycle some #2 items.

Plastic Bottle Recycling Machine account for 96% of all plastic bottles made in the United States. However, 80% still end up in landfills despite the fact that 80% of Americans have access and are able to recycle plastic bottles.

Plastics are found in almost everything else that isn't a plastic bottle. Just think of all the plastics in your home -- your toothbrush, cling wrap, plastic bowls, plastic cups, drinking straws, last night's leftovers, that almost-impossible-to-open package your new iPhone came in, your computer, your DVD cases... plastic is everywhere.

These plastics are all classified as plastics #3-7. These plastics are not easy to recycle. Even though the recycling guy may take them from your curb, it doesn't mean they will be recycled into tomorrow's soda bottles. You can still recycle the less common plastics by looking into local recycling facilities.

The bottom line when it comes to plastic recycling

Plastic is more difficult to recycle than other materials. Plastic is more difficult to recycle than other materials because it breaks down during recycling. Many recyclers prefer "virgin" plastics, which are plastics that have never been recycled before. They make better products. Even if you recycle everything you can, plastics may still end up at the dump.

We must conclude that recycling plastics is not enough. Plastics can be toxic in many ways, including the manufacturing process and the effects of plastic usage. Nearly every manufacturing process for the various types of plastic mentioned above involves some level of toxicology. As these plastics break down in landfills or in oceans, these toxic chemicals find their way back into soils, water, food, and bodies.