Did you know this?…
When you’re recycling plastic bottles (water bottles, for example), never leave the cap on the bottle itself.
Why?
According to Jessica Jenson of Low Impact Living:
They just chuck any bottles with lids on them”.
Hmmmmm…. I did not know that.
The folks at the recycling plant simply won’t take the time (or expend the energy) to take lids off of plastic bottles.
It makes sense when you think of all the millions of bottles they must receive… but still.
That means you’d actually be wasting your time & effort spent recycling if you toss a water bottle into the “plastics” bin with the lid on it!
FYI, Jessica was the “green expert” who appeared on “Living With Ed” on HGTV last night. I liked the show. And I liked Jessica. (I just signed up for the Low Impact Living newsletter, too.)
Okay, the take-away here is:
Throw the lids in the trash, and recycle the plastic bottles alone.
I’m sure my friend, Jeffrey already knew this. But I obviously still have a lot to learn.
UPDATE: To help clear up some of the confusion, Jessica from Low Impact Living posted a reply in the comments below. In part, she said this:
The truth is that recycling varies quite a bit by city. For example, in Los Angeles, we can recycle plastics numbered 1 thru 7, whereas is some cities you can only recycle 1s and 2s. And the bottle cap issue also varies. You really need to check with your city’s Bureau of Sanitation or recycling program and get the details. (Just google your city name and sanitation and/or recycling– it’s worth the search trust me.)
