Currently, only a few communities in the U. The thin polyethylene plastic coating on the cups that helps prevent liquid leaking makes it difficult for most processing services to recycle the cups. With about 58 billion paper cups used each year in the U.
If your community offers composting service, look for cups made with plant-based coating, which allows the cups to be composted. Plastic bags wrap themselves around the equipment, and as a result, the whole plant may have to shut down — wasting time, energy, and money. Repairmen often are hired to come in with knives to cut the plastic bags out of the guts of the machinery, Lombardi explains. The good news is that most grocery stores throughout the U. Plastic bags can be made into dozens of new and useful products as well.
Read more: How to Recycle Plastic Bags. Plastics 1 and 2, made from polyethylene terephthalate PETE and high-density polyethylene HDPE , are the most commonly accepted plastics for recycling. The most important thing to remember is to check your program and make sure you only put the specific items they accept in your recycling bin. Read more: The Ultimate Plastic Breakdown. Polypropylene PP , or plastic 5, often makes up the plastic caps on bottles. In the past, we were told to remove the cap.
Now, this is not always the case, as some plastic recyclers are able to effectively recycle bottles with caps. Recycling collection and processing technology have improved and demand for the recyclable material has increased. Bottles are ground into flake before being vigorously washed in the recycling process.
If the recycler is set up for this, the cap and bottle materials are separated during the cleaning process. Not all recyclers have the capacity to process caps, which can jam their machinery.
So please confirm with your local program that they accept caps before you put them in your bin. Broken glass is recyclable, but it might not be reprocessed into new glass bottles. This is because when glass breaks, it can often be a challenge to separate it by color given the tiny pieces. This glass can be used as an additive in fiberglass, tile and flooring, pavement, or even turned back into sand to stop beach depletion.
This could injure waste haulers or people sorting material at the recycling facility. For this reason, your local program might not accept broken glass in your curbside bin. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Tech News. Sarah Kramer. Sign up for notifications from Insider!
Stay up to date with what you want to know. Loading Something is loading. Email address. Deal icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Most food wrappers are NOT recyclable! Chips, candy, and other packaged foods are typically in wrappers that are not recyclable. These items should go in a trash can. Currently, MCC does not have a company to recycle our pieces of Styrofoam and foam peanuts.
0コメント