Plastics Recycling

How to Recycle Plastic?

· Before sending your plastic containers to recycling, your community may require you to remove labels from plastic containers and don’t forget to crush your plastic containers before throwing them into your recycling bin to save space.

· Contact your local recycling centers and ask them what type of plastic that they can recycle. You can search for plastic recycling centers in our website by search from your “Zip code” or “City.”

· Clean up and classify your plastic containers by number in a triangle on the bottom. You must to separate recyclable plastics out off other types of plastic by number, to avoid contamination in the recycling process.

· Type 1 (PETE, Polyethylene terephthalate) and type 2 (HDPE, High-density polyethylene) plastic containers such as detergent containers, some plastic bags, medicine containers, and milk, soft drink, juice, cooking oil and water bottles are easy plastics to recycle and also they can recycle at your curbside, however that depend on your local instructions.

· type 4 (LDPE, Low density polyethylene) and some of type 2 such as wrapping films, grocery and sandwich bags, tubing, and various molded laboratory equipment, may be accepted by only few municipal recycling centers only because of its very low rate of recyclability. However, don’t forget to clean up your bags before sending them to recycling center.

· Search for local recycling centers in your area that will take type 6 items such as plastic utensils, toys, video cassettes and cases, coffee cups, packaging peanuts, and insulation board and other expanded polystyrene products (Styrofoam). They are widely accepted because they can be reprocessed into many items.

· Types 3 (PVC, Polyvinyl chloride) as plastic pipes, shower curtains, fencing, and some baby bottle nipples, types 5 (PP, Polypropylene) as auto parts, industrial fibers, food containers, and dishware, and types 7 (OTHER, Other plastics) as layered or mixed plastic, plastic lumber applications, and headlight lenses, these plastics are difficult to recycle but some of them are recyclable. In most cities, does not recycle these plastics except it is through a test program. However, you can return such items to the product manufacturers to avoid contributing to the local waste stream, and instead put the burden on the makers to recycle or dispose of the items properly.