Recycling numbers
- Thread starter Joebwe25
- Start date
patandchickens
Crazy Cat Lady
Ha, from the title I was thinking "so, like, if I have a 461 I no longer need, I can use it to make a new 16 and then see if anybody needs an extra 4?"
Our blue-box recycling accepts almost any packaging type of plastic (in fact I was unable, in the yearly pamphlet or the Region of Durham website, to find ANY information on what numbers are/aren't taken). I do not know for sure that they actually recycle all of them, but they may -- Durham has a VERY aggressive waste-diversion program because of radically insufficient landfill space and the impending closure of the US border to Ontario trash (high time, too).
One major factor, as I understand it, that determines whether your municipality recycles a certain number of plastic is the size of the market for that type of plastic. Some kinds, there just isn't much demand for - much more is produced than anyone has use for in recycled products.
The thing that bugs the HECK out of me with all this emphasis on recycling is that it distracts people away from what IMO should be the MAIN focus, REDUCING USE! There seems to be a common attitude of 'oh, it's ok to be buying all this stuff, no matter how overpackaged or sold-in-small-separately-packaged-units it is, because hey it's recyclable." No. Recycling takes *energy* - it reduces landfill volume and may slightly reduce petrochemical consumption (though that is debatable for most recycleables), but it is not by any stretch of the imagination a free lunch.
So, the best thing to do about plastic types your municipality doesn't take for recycling is to do your darnedest to avoid buying them in the first place. Especially if they come wrapped around things you didn't need and aren't good for you anyhow, like bottled water or sodapop or store-bought packaged food
JMHO,
Pat
Our blue-box recycling accepts almost any packaging type of plastic (in fact I was unable, in the yearly pamphlet or the Region of Durham website, to find ANY information on what numbers are/aren't taken). I do not know for sure that they actually recycle all of them, but they may -- Durham has a VERY aggressive waste-diversion program because of radically insufficient landfill space and the impending closure of the US border to Ontario trash (high time, too).
One major factor, as I understand it, that determines whether your municipality recycles a certain number of plastic is the size of the market for that type of plastic. Some kinds, there just isn't much demand for - much more is produced than anyone has use for in recycled products.
The thing that bugs the HECK out of me with all this emphasis on recycling is that it distracts people away from what IMO should be the MAIN focus, REDUCING USE! There seems to be a common attitude of 'oh, it's ok to be buying all this stuff, no matter how overpackaged or sold-in-small-separately-packaged-units it is, because hey it's recyclable." No. Recycling takes *energy* - it reduces landfill volume and may slightly reduce petrochemical consumption (though that is debatable for most recycleables), but it is not by any stretch of the imagination a free lunch.
So, the best thing to do about plastic types your municipality doesn't take for recycling is to do your darnedest to avoid buying them in the first place. Especially if they come wrapped around things you didn't need and aren't good for you anyhow, like bottled water or sodapop or store-bought packaged food
JMHO,
Pat
enjoy the ride
Sufficient Life
Our recycling place has reduced the catagories of things needed to be seperated. There are plastic bottles with a redemption valuse, paper products, all other plastic items, and "containers" which are cans, glass .
Easier but I still keep wanting to make spereate places for all of them.
Easier but I still keep wanting to make spereate places for all of them.
the simple life
Yard Farmer
Our curbside recycling pick up use to only take #1 and #2,
but it now takes any kind of plastic or glass along with the newspapers.
I have seen them pick up the plastic pots that your plants come in.I usually repurpose mine and give the rest away to people that need them so it never occurred to me that they could go into the recycling.
I use to seperate all the glass from the plastic in different bins and the old trucks use to have sections for the glass and plastic to be dumped into.
Now the new trucks just come by and take everything and dump it into one main holding area. Even though I had been seperating it all, they are just dumping it in all together.
I asked the guy about it and he said he never knew they use to do it seperate and ever since this company took over this is how they do it.
It seems like it would be more work for the company to seperate it all later on, who knows.
but it now takes any kind of plastic or glass along with the newspapers.
I have seen them pick up the plastic pots that your plants come in.I usually repurpose mine and give the rest away to people that need them so it never occurred to me that they could go into the recycling.
I use to seperate all the glass from the plastic in different bins and the old trucks use to have sections for the glass and plastic to be dumped into.
Now the new trucks just come by and take everything and dump it into one main holding area. Even though I had been seperating it all, they are just dumping it in all together.
I asked the guy about it and he said he never knew they use to do it seperate and ever since this company took over this is how they do it.
It seems like it would be more work for the company to seperate it all later on, who knows.
