Did you know…?

Did you know this about plastic?

Leaving the caps on plastic bottles when you toss them in the recycling bin makes them nonrecyclable.  Plastic caps are usually made out of a different type of plastic than plastic bottles.  Plastics are sorted at the recycling facility according to the type of plastic it is made of.  If you leave caps on, combining 2 different types of plastic, neither one can be recycled, and both are discarded.

Update April 19, 2010: After talking with Brenda from Allied Waste (the company our city uses for recycling) we learned more about this issue.  If the recycling facility workers see a bottle with a cap on, they will unscrew the caps.  Otherwise, they go to the buyer for those plastics, and the buyer may have a laser that chops off the top part of the bottle.  (We weren’t clear on whether it was then recycled or not).  However, some buyers will not take plastic bottles that have lids on them.  If you unscrew the lids, the caps may fall through the filtering screen at the beginning of the process, meaning it will not get recycled.  According to Brenda, there was a 50/50 chance either way that the plastic would be recycled.  You know what that means?  No more plastic bottles!

About 95% of cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic which does not quickly degrade and can persist in the environment.  Apart from being unsightly,  cigarette butt litter can also pose a hazard to animals and marine life when they mistake filters for food.  (Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Campaign).  Cigarette butts are also the largest source of litter, according to this video by Bill Nye the Science Guy.  Check it out!  Half way through the video he focuses on cigarettes, what the filters are made of, and why they pose a hazard to the environment.

Many common materials used for clothing are made out of plastic, like polyester, nylon, lycra, spandex, and elastics.  Have you ever worn polyester clothing and felt that funky clammy feeling?  That’s because it’s made of plastic and doesn’t breathe like natural fibers do.  Switch to natural fibers and feel the difference!

Chewing gum that has gum base as an ingredient contains plastic, so gum is non-biodegradable.  Think about how many sticks of gum people chew every day!  Check out the article, Chewing on Plastic? Yum!, from fakeplasticfish.com and Behind the Label: Chewing Gum from TheEcologist.org.

Some so-called “eco-friendly reusable shopping bags” are actually made of plastic!  Can you believe it?!  Check the label on yours and see if it is made of polypropylene, which is plastic #5.  Several of ours are, and it was one of the first things I spotted when we began this project.  Replace plastic with more plastic?  What a clever campaign.  Some bags are made of recycled plastic bottles, which is better because it provides a market for recycled plastic.  Even better, go for canvas bags.  Maybe find some with a square bottom, which will hold more items than the traditional tote style.  By the way, I wrote a review on the Target website several weeks ago on their “eco-friendly” bags made of plastic (I have two of them), telling everyone what I discovered and to buy something different that actually was better for the environment.  So far, my review hasn’t been posted by Target.  I wonder why?  I re-submitted it today