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Is Plastic
Still Confusing You? |
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Plastic is the
second largest item by volume found in
California landfills. When plastics are buried
in a landfill, they occupy about 25 percent of
the space. Putting plastics into landfills is
not always the best disposal method. There are
two other alternatives: recycling and
incineration. Recycling will save the resources
it takes to make new plastics and prevents the
material from going to waste.
Plastics are typically classified by one of
seven numbers found inside the chasing arrows.
The recycling symbol number is used to identify
the type of plastic used to manufacture the
item. However, just because it has a
recycling symbol does not mean it can be put in
your recycling bin for pick up!
Click to read more about
Plastics By The Numbers.
Curious which plastics are accepted in the
City of Monterey Curbside Recycling Program?
Click here.
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- Plastics are
made from oil or coal treated with a heat
and pressure process, and mixed with a
variety of stabilizers and fillers.
Different "recipes" create various
properties such as strength, stiffness, and
transparency. The substance is then shaped
or molded.
- There are
over 50,000 types of plastic. Plastics must
be sorted for recycling since each type
melts at a different temperature and has
different properties. The plastics industry
has developed a series of codes to label the
seven major types of plastic. These are
generally found on the bottom of the
containers, within a triangle.
- Plastic is
recycled by melting each type of plastic
with a comparable type. Often plastic resin
pellets are then formed, creating the
building blocks for making plastic products.
- Statistics
show that recycling for the type of plastic
found in water bottles in 2002 has stagnated
in the United States. In 1995, we used 1.95
billion pounds of this plastic. Now, we use
4 billion pounds of it in bottles. In 1995,
the recycling rate for these containers was
39.7 percent. In 2002, it was 19.9 percent.
- While it is
technically possible to recycle black
plastic, it is not done because there is not
enough black plastic in the waste stream to
justify the cost of recycling it; for
practical reasons, black plastic can only be
recycled with other black plastic. Black and
other colored plant nursery pots are
reusable.
- Certain
plastics, like the ones water bottles are
made of, lose their qualities when recycled
back into the very same product. For this
reason, plastic is recycled into a number of
different items.
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Plastic By The Numbers |
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Plastic #1:
Polyethylene Trephthalates (PET or PETE)
Common uses: 2-liter soda bottles, water
bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter
jars. |
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Plastic #2:
High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
Common Uses: Detergent Bottles, milk and water
jugs, grocery bags, yogurt cups. |
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Plastic #3:
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or V)
Common uses: Plastic pipes, outdoor furniture,
shrink-wrap, water bottles, liquid detergent
containers. |
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Plastic #4:
Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
Common uses: Food storage containers, dry
cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners.
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Plastics #5:
Polypropylene (PP)
Common uses: Ketchup and food bottles, aerosol
caps, drinking straws, yogurt containers. |
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Plastic #6:
Polystyrene (PS)
Common Uses: packaging pellets or Styrofoam
peanuts, cups, plastic tableware, meat trays,
to-go clamshells, egg cartons and shipping
boxes.
* many shipping stores will accept the
polystyrene peanuts and other packaging
materials for reuse.
* The City of Monterey has banned all Expanded
Polystyrene (EPS) for take out food packaging.
Click here for
more information.
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Plastics #7:
Other
Common Uses: Molded plastics for kids toys &
Tupperware etc., biodegradable and compostable
plastics. This plastic category, as its name
"other" implies, is any plastic other than the
named #1 - #6 plastic types. These
containers can be several different types of
plastic polymers.
*Most recycling centers do not take #7 plastics
or #7 Bio/compostable plastics.
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